Harry Potter and the Jedi Wizard: Part 4 - The Goblet of Fire
by The Black Widow1
Summary: Lily and James Potter have been rescued from the clutches of Lord Voldemort, now they have to adjust to life a decade into what they call the future. How will Harry react when he finds out what his Jedi pal has done? How different is the world that Andrew new before he accidentally changed reality. Well, I'm not telling you here, you'll have to read and find out, please R&R. AU
1. A Free Man - Part 1

**Disclaimer: For the first time in a while, I'm back to a disclaimer with every chapter. I own nothing, not Harry Potter, Star Wars, Knight Rider, Legacy of Kain, or anything else you might recognise from this chapter … I could list everything but that'd be a chapter all its own.**

 **And so I'm back, from outer space … can't sing any more of that song or I'll have to disclaim it too.**

 **Happy New Year to all my readers, loyal and otherwise. Loyal readers, I love you, not so loyal ... eh, you're reading anyway. My New Year's Resolution, to post another chapter every month on the first of the month.**

Chapter 1 – A Free Man – Part One

On a glorious day, nearing the start of August, Sirius Black walked into the medical ward of the Jedi Temple in London. He had a broad smile on his face, one that had been stuck there for the last three weeks, as he walked up to the bed which Andrew was fast asleep on. After his mission into the past, he had stayed awake for another two weeks, passing out in the middle of a sparring match on the twenty-second.

"Good morning, Mr Black," a Padawan said as he passed.

"Is there any change?" Sirius asked.

"No," the boy said, quickly checking Andrew's vitals. "But if he's on time, and he never isn't, he should be waking up any minute."

Sirius took a seat as the boy walked off, he unfolded his copy of 'The Daily Prophet' and read the front page.

 _Friday, July 29_ _th_ _, 1994_

 _SIRIUS BLACK CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES!_

 _Due to evidence brought forward by new witnesses, Sirius Black has been cleared of all charges, including those of treason, murder and escaping Azkaban._

 _Details are sketchy at the moment, but we can confirm that Peter Pettigrew is in fact alive and well, and is actually the traitor who should have been locked up almost fourteen years ago._

 _When questioned on the new evidence, the Minister for Magic had this to say:_

" _Our new witnesses would like to remain anonymous for the time being, as it happens, Black, Pettigrew and one of our witnesses have spent a number of years as unregistered Animagi, Black has agreed to be registered as of today and I see no reason to take_ that _matter further."_

 _Black has been granted a full pardon for the crimes he was sentenced for, he has also been given a hefty compensation and the Minister has invited him to attend the Quidditch World Cup final as his personal guest._

 _A manhunt has now begun for Pettigrew, however on that note, a Ministry spokesperson had this to say:_

" _We have begun a search for Pettigrew, based on a current description of both his human and Animagus forms from Mr Black, sadly he does have quite a head start on us. We believe that he may at this very moment be attempting to reconnect with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, in order to assist the dark wizard in some fashion."_

 _The Ministry has asked this paper to give the description of Pettigrew and ask readers to watch for him._

" _If seen, Pettigrew should_ not _be approached, contact the Ministry of Magic_ immediately _!"_

 _Pettigrew's description and this story in full can be found on pages 4 to 6._

Sirius' smile broadened a little more, he wanted this to be the first thing Andrew saw when he woke up.

On the bed, Andrew was just starting to come out of his coma, he felt some sleep in his right eye and went to rub it out, but there was a sudden, very loud, CLANG.

"OW! FUCK!" he bellowed, having just punched himself in the face with a metallic arm.

"Kindly mind your language, Andrew!" Zan Axfow said, sternly, there were younger Padawans present.

Andrew growled. "You try getting woken up by punching yourself in the face with a slab of metal! Ahhh!" he snapped back.

He rubbed the spot that was quickly bruising, with his left hand. " _Man,_ that's gonna take some getting used to!"

Zan sighed as he walked over to the boy and placed a hand on his left shoulder. "Give it time, young one, believe me, you're not the first to have this sort of difficulty, you certainly won't be the last."

"Here, this might cheer you up," Sirius said, handing Andrew the paper. Andrew read through the whole story and smiled.

"So, you're free then?" Andrew asked.

"As a bird!" Sirius said happily.

"Oh, you're awake," the three of them turned to see Lily standing in the doorway, her smile faded into a frown when she saw Andrew's blackening eye. "What happened?"

"Punched myself awake," Andrew sighed, before downing a glass of water, Lily couldn't help feeling sorry and quickly strode over with her wand out, she gently tapped the bruise and healing it.

"I'll send my Padawan to find the rest of your friends." Zan said, walking away.

"Jax and Mel left this morning!" Sirius called after the Healing Master.

"Where to?" Andrew asked.

"The campsite where the World Cup final is being held." Lily answered.

"So, aside from that, what's new?" Andrew asked as he sipped another glass of water.

"Well, aside from what's in the paper, Jax and Mel have been in touch with Ron, he and his family are picking Harry up from his aunt and uncle's house on the seventh, presuming his aunt and uncle say he can come to the world cup." Sirius explained.

"Well, if I got the right impression from Harry, you'll be a _massive_ help there," Andrew chuckled. "He was more than happy to mention to the Dursleys that his godfather was an escaped convict and a convicted murderer."

"Why would he need to tell them that?" Lily asked, looking disapproving at the information.

"Not to speak ill of your sister, Lily," Andrew started, awkwardly. "But they've never treated Harry all too well, they never told him that he was a wizard, lied to him about how you and James died, and even tried to 'squash out' his powers by treating him like sh-"

"Alright, I think you've made your point," Lily sighed. "I told Pet that that man was going to be bad for her! I swear she only married him because I didn't like him!" she fumed.

"Anyway, the final is on the eighth, Harry, Hermione, Ron and his family will be going to the campsite on that morning, but we've had to book the spot next to them from today," Sirius finished explaining.

"Melanie and Jaxon have already flown ahead with the rest of your band so that they could set up, it was the only way they could get a spot." Lily continued for him, sitting on the bed. "It was that or the site owner was going to give it to someone else who wanted the space today. We booked space for two tents and the plan is for us to go on the eighth as well."

James walked in while she was talking and took over. "I showed Jax where to get some Wizarding camping gear so that the seven of them could fit in one tent and Tony modified one of the shuttle cars with that 'Watch Mode' thing. That way Jax doesn't have to worry about parking."

"Oh I do _not_ envy Jax having to look after the guys, they hate to be cooped up and he's gotta keep them inside for a week and a half?" Andrew laughed. "Good luck to him and Mel. Has Tony worked on the rest of the fleet?" he asked as he moved to get himself out of bed.

"Oh no you don't!" Zan snapped, catching the attention of the last new arrivals. Jarod couldn't help but smile at his Padawan while Aurora giggled.

"Always on the move," Jarod said, shaking his head. "And, yes, Mr Stark has finished upgrading the Shuttle-car fleet for us, we're sending schematics and upgrade instructions out to all the other temples as well.

"I think I've been in bed long enough, Master." Andrew whined, having patiently listened to what his mentor had to say. Nonetheless, Zan insisted on Andrew going through the usual check-up before letting him go.

"I heard you were up, sleep well?" Tony Stark asked as Andrew, finally, left the medical ward.

"Har, har," Andrew answered dryly.

"I'm gonna have to head back to Avengers Tower soon, but I just wanted to let you know, I finished those modifications you asked for, you know, for Proxy, and Katt's been installed into her shell, she's ready to go." Tony explained.

 **Flashback – Saturday 9** **th** **July 1994**

The morning after Andrew's arm had been amputated, Tony arrived with a new one, explaining what was new on it.

"Basically, it's the same as a bog-standard model, with a few upgrades," he explained while Zan attached it to the plate where Andrew's shoulder used to be. "First off, you've no doubt seen the Arc Reactor I use in my armour, there's an even smaller version in that arm, complete with a retractable repulsor pad in the palm. There's also a hidden compartment in the forearm, inside you'll find a holster for your wand."

"And the point of that is..?" Andrew asked, practising with the pad by making it slide in and out of his palm. The room was filled with intermittent whines as the repulsor charged up as it filled the Padawan's palm and powered down before retracting into the arm.

"In theory, you'll be able to cast spells through the repulsor, if your wand is in that holster." Tony grinned.

"Most impressive," Dumbledore said, having been curious about Etherium for quite some time, he had chosen to stay the night and observe what Stark was going to come up with.

"Go ahead, give it a try," Tony said eagerly. Dumbledore handed Andrew his wand. "Just think about placing your wand in your arm and the compartment will open up."

Andrew did as Tony said, causing his arm to let out a tiny hiss as 'doors' opened and a pair of grapples slid out. He placed his wand in the grapples and they slid back into his arm.

"Now I've no idea what you do to … shoot fire or something," Tony said, but he pointed to a target he'd hung on the wall.

Andrew looked to Dumbledore first, who nodded, and Andrew got off the bed, held his palm up at the target and concentrated. The repulsor pad came out of his hand with a click and started to whine at it charged up. "Incendio!" Andrew shouted, causing the repulsor to go off and send a wave of fire at the target, creating quite a bit of recoil.

"GREAT!" Tony shouted. "Now, there's also a turret that comes out of the other side of your forearm, it works the same way the repulsor did, only it sends out a stream, like if you cast the same spell, it'll act like a Normal flamethrower. Just be sure to tense up your arm before firing off the repulsor, you just noticed that it packs one _hell_ of a kickback." the tech genius added. "You don't wanna smack yourself in the face when that thing fires off!"

"Well, with all that taken care of, there's just the matter of your time device." Dumbledore said to Andrew.

Andrew nodded and used the Force to lift the device into the air, his arm whined again as he took aim and blasted it to pieces. Dumbledore then erased all knowledge of how to build it from his memory, and left to return to Hogwarts.

"By the way, I found something while I was designing your arm," Stark said.

Andrew grimaced in pain as he tried rotating his shoulder, still adjusting to his new condition as he felt a phantom pain. "What's that?"

"Your car. Knight Automated Tactical Technology?"

"Yeah, she'll be a beaut when she's finished, but I can't get the AI to work." Andrew sighed.

"I noticed, need a hand?" Stark asked, mentally kicking himself.

Andrew glared a little, then he realised that Tony wasn't implying his missing arm. "Sure, let's go."

The two techno geniuses spent the rest of the day, at work, in Andrew's lab. Jarvis was also lending a hand, since they were using his core program for a template.

By the time they were about to call it a day, they were graced with a glorious sound.

" _Hello, I am the Knight Automated Tactical Technology_." the computer said, in a rather monotone voice.

"Hmm, it's a start, just need to give it a little personality." Stark said.

"Jarvis, could you modify the voice for me?" Andrew asked.

" _Anything specific, Sir_?" Jarvis asked.

"Well, she's going to be a car, car's tend to be referred to as 'she', so make her female." Stark reasoned.

" _Very good, Sir_ ," Jarvis said, sounding like he wasn't surprised to hear that.

"And make her a little younger, mid to late teens," Andrew added.

A few seconds later, the voice came back. " _Hi, I'm the Knight Automated Tactical Technology, but please, call me Katt_!"

Andrew and Tony looked at each other and shrugged. "Nice to meet you Katt, I'm Tony and this is..."

" _Hey, Dad_!" Katt nearly shouted.

Andrew went wide-eyed. "Dad?"

" _Well, I_ was _your idea, right_?" Katt asked

"Well, I suppose so, yes..." Andrew said, a little unnerved.

"Then that makes me your baby!" she sounded like she was smiling. "Nice to meet you Dad!"

"Yeah, but Tony programmed you!" Andrew cried, trying to get that particular focus off himself.

"Then that makes him my Mom!" Katt answered, Tony looked scandalised but Andrew almost fell over laughing at the look on his face.

 **End Flashback**

"So she's all ready to go on a test drive tomorrow?" Andrew asked.

"Yep," Tony answered. "Oh, and you asked about that game that's been going around here like wildfire."

Stark handed Andrew a plain unisex bracelet and a scanner-camera. "I've modified these to work in Wizarding areas, thanks to a little help from Dumbledore, you should be able to play while you're at school, and these are for Mel and Jax too." he handed over two more of each.

"Cool, how do they work again?" Andrew asked, putting the bracelet on his right wrist.

"The scanner detects them, you use the camera to look around, the image will be on the screen, then when a button appears on the screen," Tony explained, "press the button and your Pokémon gets generated by the hologram generator in the bracelet."

 **A/N Think Pokémon Go on steroids, except only the Jedi have access to it because nobody else has hologram tech ^^ which reminds me,** _ **some**_ **things in this story will seem a little out of place, given that it's 1994. This is mainly because in some cases, I can't remember when this song or that movie came out, and I can't be bothered to look them** _ **all**_ **up. But hey, it's an alternate universe, so I can get away with it.**

"Okay, so how about I introduce you to your new car before I go?" Stark asked.

"Hell yeah!" Andrew exclaimed, running off. "By the way, has she stopped calling you 'Mom' yet?"

Tony chuckled and followed, they got to the lab and both smiled at the car sitting before them. In normal mode, Katt was based off a five-seat Aston Martin V12 Vantage, gleaming red and beautiful.

" _I took the liberty of adding a few extra modes, Sir_ ," Jarvis said as they walked in. " _All identical to Katt's current forms, except in black, they're listed under 'stealth' modes_."

"Thanks, Jarvis," Andrew answered, getting into the driver's seat. "Katt, watch mode!"

" _Initiating transformation_ ," Katt said as all of her panels started to shift and change shape. A few seconds later, she was just a watch on Andrew's left wrist. " _Transformation complete_."

"Great, now I just need to field test her over the next week and pack for my trip," Andrew said, he shook hands with Tony and thanked him for all his help.

"Not a problem, just give me a shout if you ever need help again," Tony said while they made their way to the main entrance. "I also fitted her with an Arc Reactor, between that and your original design, her horse power should have tripled." Tony shook hands with Andrew as Happy held the car door open for his boss. Tony stepped into the flashy sports car and they drove off to the airport.

Andrew went to his room and said hello to Snowfire, the owl had been wary of Andrew's new arm at first, but eventually he stopped shying away from it. He perched himself on Andrew's left shoulder while he packed his things, mainly his spare clothes.

Once he was happy that he was set and ready to go, he took a moment to smile, thinking of the look on Harry's face in ten days time, when he'd see his parents getting out of the car,

"Snowfire, you go ahead and keep Harry and Hedwig company at Privet Drive, I should be fine without you until then. I'll see you at The Burrow the day after the final, okay?" he said, Snowfire hooted and gave his master an affectionate nip on the ear, before taking off and flying out the open window.

"Well, Katt, how would you like a tour around the place?" Andrew asked, lifting his left wrist to talk. A hologram came out of the watch face of a white head with indistinguishable eyes and plain features.

" _Sure thing, Dad, but is it a good idea to talk to your watch like this? Someone's gonna think you've gone a little nuts!_ " she commented.

"Only until you answer me, so I'm counting on you to protect the myth of my sanity." Andrew joked back, she let out a hearty laugh. Andrew then left his room and started back to the main entrance, holding his wrist up so that Katt's holographic head could watch where they were going.

As they got there, Andrew noticed a younger Padawan sitting on the top step, curled up and hugging her knees. Her name was Selena Hill, she had dark green eyes, so dark they looked like moss, and cropped shoulder-length raven black hair and she was twelve years old.

"Something bothering you, Selena?" Andrew asked, taking a casual seat next to her and trying to ignore the clank his arm made on the stone as he leant back on his palms.

She spared the older boy a miserable looking glare before she went back to staring at the bright sky. "It's been four hours already, and I'm not going to see him for another ten days!" she whined.

Andrew waited for the girl to elaborate, but when she didn't he pressed. "You mean … Jax?" he guessed.

"NO! EW!" She exclaimed, turning and glaring at the boy bothering her. "You think I'd fall for anyone who used the Dark Side!?"

"Hey! Don't knock him just for that, remember those guys are a necessary evil.." Andrew started.

"Yeah, yeah! 'Sometimes to save a thousand lives, you have to sacrifice one'!" Selena recited. "But they still creep me out!"

"So if not Jax, it's gotta be one of the others." Andrew reasoned, rubbing his chin with his left hand. "Is he furry or does he have pointy ears?"

Selena rolled her eyes as Andrew started to play 'twenty questions'. "Pointy ears," she snapped. "And the most _gorgeous_ wings!" she gushed.

"Raziel!?" Andrew exploded, sitting upright so fast he nearly fell off the step.

"What's wrong with that?" she demanded.

"Well how about the fact that he's technically dead?" Andrew shot back. "Twice!"

"He's alive where it counts!" Selena whined, causing Andrew to frown.

"You mean he's..." Andrew started.

"No, he won't let me do anything and he's been a perfect gentleman!" she said defensively. "Sometimes I don't even think he's noticed I'm a woman."

Andrew bit back the retort that she was only twelve. "Maybe he knows you're just crushing on him." he suggested, deciding that he was going to have a word with his band-mate.

Before the girl could respond, her Master, Zak Poole arrived and ordered her to return to her training. Andrew got up, dusted himself off and continued Katt's tour.

By the end of the day, Katt knew her way around the Temple as well as Andrew did. The next morning, Andrew and his Master, Jarod Cooper, had cancelled all of their appointments and training for the day.

"So, Master Lee..." Jarod started.

"Which one?" Andrew asked with a grin, always going with the same joke as Masters of both sides of the order carried the same title, 'Master'.

"Drexia," Jarod growled, having long become tired of that joke, much to Drexia and Quint's glee. "She is going to pilot the chopper for me while I handle a camera and track your progress and in the air." he explained.

"Have the police been notified?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, and they've cleared a route, Katt should be aware of it," Jarod answered. "They also have a few trained drivers on the route so that you can test out her manoeuvrability."

"Good, I'll be ready when you are, Master." Andrew said with a nod as he jogged off to the entrance. As he got to the curb, he looked up at the building behind him, specifically at the gap in the side near the top. It was the landing bay and occasionally a shuttle or fighter would drift or speed in or out, depending on the craft and its direction.

Soon enough an old-fashioned helicopter with a domed cockpit drifted out of the landing bay and quickly descended closer to the ground. "Katt, normal mode." Andrew commanded his watch.

" _Initiating transformation._ " came Katt's programmed response, Andrew stepped into the road as she started to transform from the watch on his wrist into the form of a five-seater Aston Martin. " _Transformation complete._ " she stated as her engine purred to life.

" _Now, remember Andrew,_ " Jarod voice came out of the dashboard. " _I want you to keep radio contact at all times! If even the slightest thing seems wrong, I want you to declare an abort and pull over!_ "

"Yes, Master," Andrew responded. "I know we've never tried anything like Katt before, and I'm hoping she's a success too."

The young Padawan set off at a gentle pace, gradually increasing his speed to the limit of thirty miles per hour, merging gracefully into traffic and heading straight to where the police had cordoned off the road. "She's handling nicely so far Master, and I can see the barrier up ahead." Andrew said to nobody in particular.

" _Understood, Andrew. You'll have to slow to a stop for the barrier._ " Jarod responded.

"I thought I could test out pod mode and go between the parked squad cars." Andrew suggested, there was silence on the line as Jarod spoke to the officer in charge of the cordon.

" _Agreed, proceed Andrew._ " the Padawan was instructed, and as soon as he was clear of traffic, Andrew increased his speed.

"Katt, pod mode!" she answered with her usual as her bodywork shifted and warped into that of a souped-up motorcycle, Andrew was leaning forward in a seated position with a bullet resistant dome of glass over him, protecting him from the wind. He shifted up a gear and blasted between the front and rear bumpers of two parked police cars and skilfully weaved between the civilian cars that were being driven by plain-clothes officers.

" _Nicely done, Andrew!_ " came Jarod's praise. " _Remind me, how many can that mode hold?_ "

"Just two Master, and no luggage," Andrew answered, concentrating on the road.

" _Was the transformation clean?_ " he heard Drexia ask, referring to how comfortable his Padawan was during the process.

"Mostly, Master." Andrew answered. "I'd guess that it's a little unnerving being forced into a more forward position, going from ground to air mode normally doesn't move the seat at all."

" _Understood, why not join us in the air?_ " Jarod suggested.

"I don't recommend it for now, let's call it a day and analyse the data we've collected already, no need to rush it." Andrew answered, indicating to make a right turn as he slowed down. "Katt, take us home?" he requested, letting go of the controls.

" _Do you think she can drive herself?_ " Drexia asked.

"Jarvis manages it with Tony's armours," Andrew answered proudly as Katt proceeded to switch back to normal mode and drive herself back to the Temple cleanly and safely.

Having spent an hour on the road, the three of them took a break for lunch. "You think Katt will be an asset to the Order then, Andrew?" Drexia asked.

"Possibly," Andrew said, feeling a little unsure. "I think we'll have to change the programming for any other vehicles, I've grown a little attached to the original, and vice-versa." he said.

"For a computer, she does seem incredibly unique." Jarod commented thoughtfully. "It should be a simple matter for Mr Stark to modify the programming for future models."

" _Dad?_ " Katt asked. " _Should I be worried?_ "

Andrew chuckled a little. "No, Katt, don't worry, we'll do everything we can to keep you as special as you are."

Jarod and Drexia chuckled a little. They finished their meal and went to a terminal station to look over Katt's onboard recording and Jarod's camera.

"Well, I think tomorrow I should run the same route with a crash dummy in the passenger seat." Andrew said after they agreed it was a good test run. "Make sure that it's safe for additional people."

"From there we can work on transferring to airborne modes," Jarod agreed, looking at the clock. "In the meantime, we should all get some rest, it's getting late.

The next morning, after breakfast, Quint was waiting at the roadside with a test dummy. Andrew asked Katt to change into her normal mode and helped the Master mechanic to position the dummy in the passenger seat. Once the seatbelt was in place, Andrew got back into the driver's seat.

As soon as the helicopter was hovering overhead, Andrew set off, joining easily into traffic and driving towards their testing area, as he got into visual range of the roadblock he ordered Katt to switch to pod mode again. As she finished her transformation, Andrew cried out in slight pain. "That one hurt!"

" _What happened!_ " Jarod demanded, concerned.

"I put it down to the dummy being totally inanimate, but it just headbutted me in the spine!" Andrew complained.

" _Are you hurt badly?_ " Drexia asked.

"No, I'm okay, I'm gonna abort this run and head back to the Temple, it's time to kill two birds with one stone." Andrew announced.

" _How do you mean?_ " Jarod asked.

"Proxy, he'll have more control over his motor functions." Andrew answered, asking Katt to turn around and head back.

After a slight fiasco at the Temple roadside, the dummy landing on the floor in a heap as Katt changed to watch mode, Andrew rushed inside to fetch Proxy. In the meantime, Quint put the dummy back in storage and Drexia landed to refuel.

Proxy was thought up by Jax as an upgrade of sorts for the Temple's training droids, it was designed to be more intelligent and to serve as both a travelling companion and a sparring partner. In its shoulder and hip joints, it was fitted with hologram generators so that with a collection of data disks, it could take on the form, personality and fighting style of any potential sparring partner.

Though by design, Proxy was meant to be a replacement for the current travelling training droid, Proxy himself was the only one in existence, as a prototype. Andrew switched him on and his eyes lit up brightly. They dimmed a few times as he 'blinked' and took in his surroundings.

" _Hello, Master Andrew,_ " he said, a mouth of sorts lighting up as he spoke. " _Is Mr Stark not working on me again today?_ "

"No, Proxy, he's returned to New York, today you're helping me with some field testing." Andrew answered, Proxy nodded and stood up, the hologram generators in his shoulders and hips glowing blue as he took on Mel's appearance.

"Alright, what're we doing exactly?" Proxy asked, Andrew marvelled at how perfectly he took on Mel's voice.

"I'm testing out the Knight Automated Tactical Technology," Andrew explained. "I just injured myself with a crash dummy, so I figured I'd try someone who could control what their body was doing." unlike some, Andrew chose never to refer to anything that could think as a thing, to him, Proxy was a 'male' and Katt a 'female'.

"Okay then, let's not waste any time," Proxy said, sounding exactly like Mel when she was being all business.

The two of them walked back out to the roadside and Andrew looked up at the hanger, pulling out his Holo-com, he called his Master. "Are you and Master Lee ready to take off again?" he asked.

" _Yes,_ " Jarod answered, a moment later the helicopter could be heard overhead and Andrew switched Katt to normal mode and asked Proxy to take the passenger seat.

"Don't forget your seatbelt," Andrew instructed. Proxy was programmed to learn to do things for himself, but he would still need to be told the first time, in future he would remember to fasten his seatbelt every time he got into a car.

They set off and returned to their cordoned test roads, switching into pod mode with no difficulties this time. "As I suspected, Master," Andrew said into the radio. "No issues when the occupant is animate."

" _Understood, Andrew._ " Jarod answered. " _Now switch to shuttle mode and let's call it a day, we've got just about enough time to go over today's data._ "

Andrew agreed and asked Katt to change to the required vehicle, going airborne and leading the way home. Andrew went to bed that night, smiling at how well the testing was going so far.

Getting ready to set off on the morning of the first of August was a lot harder than before, Andrew, Quint and Proxy each brought a test dummy this time, because today's test was going to be from normal mode to shuttle mode and back with a full car.

This time Andrew got up to speed in the middle of slow moving traffic and switched to shuttle mode to go airborne and avoid the inevitable Monday rush hour gridlock. There were no complications with the transformation and once the Padawan had gotten over the testing grounds, he swooped in for a landing, gracefully changing back into the Aston Martin and driving around the block and back to the Temple.

Next Andrew went out alone to try out the fighter mode. Again with no complications and this time landing in the hanger. "I was thinking about trying something a little risky." he told his Master as he stepped out of the helicopter.

"Like?" Jarod asked, wary of his pupil's next words.

"Driving out of here in pod mode and switching to fighter in free-fall." Andrew answered, straight-faced.

"ARE YOU NUTS!?" Drexia exploded.

"Maybe, but you never know, it might happen for real. Sometimes people _do_ accidentally drive off a cliff and being able to switch to a flying vehicle would be a _real_ lifesaver!" Andrew answered defensively.

"You make a fair point, but I want it to be the last thing we try, once we've made sure everything else works and we can arrange a 'safety net' of sorts." Jarod agreed. Stating for the moment they would go over the day's data again.

The following day they retested everything they had done so far, transferring from normal mode, to pod and back, from both vehicles to shuttle and back, then to fighter mode and back. Then Andrew picked up Proxy and went through it all again, sans fighter mode as it left no room for passengers. Then back to the Temple again to pick up test dummies for the back seat and finishing up switching to the shuttle and back, then back to shuttle and landing in the hanger.

On Wednesday, they spent the whole time in the air, trying something a little dangerous. Switching from shuttle to fighter while in mid-air. The dangerous part was that there could have been a failure mid transformation and Andrew could have fallen to his death. But that never happened and with that done, Jarod decided that it was time to try Andrew's idea.

"Are you sure you're happy to try this?" Quint asked on the Thursday morning.

"No?" Andrew said, letting out a nervous chuckle. "What the hell was I thinking?" he asked.

"I used to try and figure that out," the mechanic answered with a grin. "But then, I decided I'd had enough of the migraines!"

"Fun-nee!" Andrew drawled. "Katt, pod mode." she changed from a watch to a motorcycle, gracefully sliding the canopy closed over Andrew's head. "We ready on your end, Master?" he asked as he revved the engine.

" _Ready when you are, my young Padawan,_ " Jarod answered, the chopper blades whirring to life. Andrew nodded to himself with determination as he revved his engine nervously.

" _Let's go, Dad! I know we can do this!_ " Katt cheered, Andrew nodded again and as soon as the helicopter was hovering off the ground, he pulled hard on the throttle and shot off towards the ledge.

The duo flew off the edge of the hanger bay and started to fall. "Katt! Fighter mode!" Andrew cried, trying not to panic too much.

" _Initiating transformation!_ " Katt answered, changing her shape and allowing Andrew's braid to fly behind his head in the wind as she quickly changed into a small, agile Jedi fighter, the jets propelling the craft down the street at around ninety miles an hour. " _Transformation complete!_ "

Andrew yelled and whooped in relief and elation as buildings flew by him, he realised he was gripping the control gauntlets a little tight and forced himself to relax. "Master? I think it worked!"

" _I know, I caught the whole thing on film!_ " Jarod cheered. " _How did it feel on your end?_ "

"Scary, but smooth. I think that concludes Katt's testing!" Andrew answered.

Jarod agreed and after examining the data one last time, Katt was declared fit for service officially on Friday the fifth of August nineteen ninety-four. Lucky, considering she had a long drive with a nearly full car in three days.

 **That's all for this month, see you next month for** **A Free Man – Part 2** **. Feel free to review this chapter and show some love.**


	2. A Free Man - Part 2

**Disclaimer: You'll be amazed to hear this, but after a whole month … I still own nothing.**

 **Hey everyone, I am** _ **so**_ **sorry for the late update, I've moved house this last weekend and everything's been hectic, but I promise, next month's update** _ **will**_ **be on the 1** **st** **. So here** **we go again, another chapter. I'll not tell you what happens, but please review if you like it.**

Chapter 2 – A Free Man – Part Two

It was Saturday the sixth of August, and Harry Potter had just woken from a nightmare with the scar on his head almost burning, he heard a soft hoot and looked to see his friends owl, Snowfire sitting on his wardrobe with a concerned look in his eyes.

He sat up, trying to recall what his dream was about. He let out a sigh and looked up to Snowfire. "I'm okay, don't worry." he said, Snowfire glided gracefully down and perched himself on Harry's bedside table.

Harry accepted his glasses as the owl picked them up in his beak and offered them to the boy, Harry placed them on his face and rubbed his scar as the burning pain eased slowly.

The owl had turned up almost a week ago, he didn't have a letter or anything, so Harry guessed that Andrew was busy with something at home and allowed the owl to spend some time with his mate, Harry's owl Hedwig. To be honest, after three years together, it was amazing that the two of them hadn't laid an egg yet.

Harry's mind went back to his dream, he was certain that it was about Voldemort, the man who had murdered his parents when he was a year old, and Wormtail, the man who'd given Voldemort their hiding place.

All he knew about that night was that Voldemort had wanted to kill him and that his parents had given their lives to try and stop him, but all he could remember about it, was green light, laughing and what the Dementors had forced him to remember during his last year at school, he could remember voices and sometimes still heard the words Voldemort had said to his mother before he'd murdered her.

In his dream, Voldemort and Wormtail were talking about someone they had killed and were plotting how they were going to kill _him_ , then a snake slivered in and told Voldemort that an old Muggle man was outside, listening. Wormtail had opened the door and invited the man in, then there was a flash of green light, and that's when Harry woke up.

Harry got off his bed and opened his curtains, looking up and down the street, having seen nothing unusual, he sat back down on his bed, running a finger over his scar again. If the last three years of his life had taught him anything, it was that pain didn't bother him much. In his first year at Hogwarts, he'd come fact to face with Voldemort, and touching him had made his whole body burn. Then in his second year he'd lost all the bones in his right arm and regrown them in one night, then later that same year, the same arm was impaled by the foot-long fang of a fifty foot snake.

Last year he'd started basic Jedi training, which wasn't easy, and during one Quidditch match, he'd fallen fifty feet from an airborne broomstick. Yeah, pain didn't bother him, much. Harry was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of his cousin letting out a loud grunt of a snore, he sighed to himself.

"( _This is ridiculous!_ )" Harry scolded himself. "( _Voldemort's hardly likely to be here in Privet Drive! There's nobody here but me, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley and Snowfire!_ )" he added as an afterthought that, given his training so far, he would sense anyone who shouldn't be there as well.

Harry looked around his bedroom, his eyes locking onto his birthday cards and a copy of 'The Daily Prophet' that his godfather had sent to him. As the moving picture on the front page showed Sirius shaking hands with the Minister for Magic. Harry beamed, happy to see his godfather was a free man.

He also thought back to how his friends had sent food for him when he wrote to complain about the diet that Petunia had put the whole house on when she'd gotten a letter from Dudley's school that he was getting obese, but mainly the letter he'd gotten from Sirius. As soon as he'd heard that he was going to be forced to follow Dudley's diet, Harry had sent Hedwig to Hermione and Ron, and borrowed Snowfire to send letters to Hagrid and Andrew.

Hermione had answered with sugar-free snacks, Ron's mother had sent a huge box of fruitcake and pasties, Hagrid had sent his home-made rock cakes, but Sirius had sent the most interesting box and letter.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _First of all, happy early birthday, since it's tomorrow I thought I'd say it now. Andrew would have written himself but he's busy with his projects. The kid only woke up yesterday and he's already hard at it!_

 _I'm sending you a copy of yesterday's paper, it was the first thing Andrew saw when he woke up! I'M FREE! I'll not tell you the details in a letter, it'll be better to talk about it in person, and I'll be at the world cup final. Ron said he's hoping to pick you up from your aunt and uncle's soon, so I'll be seeing you there._

 _I did tell Andrew about your letter and he shot off to the kitchen with a lady to help cook up some food for you._

 _I'll sign off here and let Andrew write you a P.S._

 _All the best from me and Buckbeak. Love, Sirius._

 _PS. Hey Harry, it's Andrew, sorry I couldn't write to you myself, I'm in the middle of something with my car, explain more when I see you. Listen though, careful with the bag your food's in, it's a little Jedi tech that keeps food at_ just _the perfect conditions to make it taste like it's fresh out of the oven. So enjoy your steak bakes and try not to burn your fingers and tongue!_

Harry chuckled a little to himself, thinking back on that letter, he sat down at his desk, putting the newspaper away in his trunk, and started to write Sirius a letter about his scar. When he finished he looked at Snowfire, who had hopped over Harry's bed to perch himself in Hedwig's open cage.

"Hey, Snowfire?" the owl hooted softly. "Do you think Sirius is still at the Temple?" he nodded. "Think you could take this to him?"

Snowfire offered Harry his leg and Harry tied the letter on, then the owl hooted once more and took off out the window.

At that point, Harry went downstairs, expecting a rather disappointing breakfast, but looking forward to some of Mrs Weasley's cooking afterwards.

Breakfast was almost exactly as Harry predicted, except a letter had arrived by post, addressed to Uncle Vernon, about Harry. It was from Mrs Weasley, she was asking for Vernon's permission to take Harry to see Ireland play against Bulgaria in the Quidditch World Cup final and to stay with them for the rest of the holidays.

Vernon had asked a few questions, like who Mrs Weasley was and what Quidditch was, then he asked what Mrs Weasley meant when she asked for Harry to write back 'in the normal way' and that's when things almost went downhill. Harry explained that she meant by owl and Vernon almost hit Harry for mentioning the word 'wizards'. Vernon then made mention of Harry's clothes and Harry pointed out that they were hand-me-downs and Vernon got angrier, so Harry played his trump card.

"OK, so I can't see the World Cup. Can I go now? Only I've got a letter to Sirius I want to finish. You know – my godfather." he'd neglected to mention that Sirius had been cleared of all the charges and as luck would have it, the Muggle news had stopped talking about him ever since his escape from Hogwarts back in June.

That had done the trick, with a little more pushing the escaped convict story, Vernon caved in and allowed Harry to go. So he pretended he was full from breakfast, regardless of having touched none of it, and rushed to his room to write another letter to Sirius. When he'd closed the door, he turned and saw Hedwig there, looking very annoyed. The source of her annoyance was in the form of another owl, bearing with it a letter from Ron.

He read Ron's letter, which detailed that they planned to come and collect Harry the next day, whether the Dursleys said he could go or not, that Hermione was going to be there later that same day and that Andrew was meeting them at the campsite.

After getting 'Pig' to calm down long enough for Harry to write his answer, the tiny bird zoomed off out the window. "Do you feel up to going to London for me?" he asked Hedwig, she hooted in a dignified sort of way, almost determined to show Harry how a _real_ owl should behave.

Harry wrote a little note to Sirius, telling him he would be at the world cup and that he was looking forward to seeing him there, as he was tying it to Hedwig's leg he spoke to her. "Sirius is hopefully still at the Temple, Snowfire took a letter to him for me earlier today, make sure to head over to The Burrow after you've dropped the letter off, and I'll see you there tomorrow, OK?" she nipped his finger affectionately and took off.

 **Meanwhile at the Jedi Temple**

Sirius had just gotten back from a touch of shopping in Muggle London. James and Lily were trying to keep a low profile publicly for now, so Sirius and Dela had volunteered to head out and get them some new clothing, Sirius shopped for James and Dela for Lily.

"I hope Lily kills you for that _thing_ you got for James," Dela said, trying to stay her usual serious self.

"What's wrong with it?" Sirius asked, feigning innocence. "It'll spice things up for them in the bedroom!"

"What'll spice things up in the bedroom, Padfoot?" James asked, before adding, "Not that we need much help."

"Your very own," Sirius started, rummaging through one of his bags. "Gimp mask, Prongs!"

James was stunned, for a moment. "I agree, Dela, Lily's gonna kill him."

Sirius burst out laughing before he tapped the mask with his wand and it turned into a black fedora. "Got you going there, didn't I!"

At that moment, Dela couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I kept a straight face for as long as I could!"

"What're you all laughing about?" Andrew asked as he and Lily walked over.

"Just Padfoot proving he's not grown up, even after thirteen years in Azkaban," James laughed, patting his best friend on his shoulder.

Just then Snowfire glided through the archway, landing on James' shoulder and offering a letter to Sirius. Sirius took the letter and started reading out loud.

 _Dear Sirius,_

 _Thanks for your last letter, it's great to hear your name's been cleared, I can't wait to hear the details. Tell Andrew the steak bakes are delicious!_

 _Things are the same as usual here. Dudley's diet isn't going too well. My aunt found him smuggling doughnuts into his room yesterday. They told him they'd have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window. That's a sort of computer thing you can play games on. Bit stupid really, now he hasn't even got Mega-Mutilation Part Three to take his mind off things._

By this point, James was giggling at Dudley getting caught and throwing a tantrum and Lily was looking very unimpressed at how spoiled her nephew clearly was.

 _I'm OK, mainly because the Dursleys are terrified you might turn up and turn them all into bats if I asked you to._

"He's right, I probably would," Sirius joked.

 _A weird thing happened this morning, though. My scar hurt again. Last time that happened was in my first year, and it was because Voldemort was at Hogwarts. But I don't reckon he can be anywhere near me now, can he? Do you know if curse scars sometimes hurt years afterwards?_

 _Say hello to Andrew and Buckbeak for me._

 _Harry._

"What's this about a curse scar?" James asked, mulling over Harry's letter.

"Oh, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, his curse backfired, I'm guessing Dumbledore already told you that." Andrew explained, Harry's parents nodded. "Well, ever since that night, Harry's carried this scar on his forehead, it's shaped like a lightning bolt. It's how most people recognise him on sight."

At this piece of news, Lily became very teary-eyed and James moved over to comfort her. "It'll be alright Lily-Flower, we'll get to see him soon."

"But we've missed so much Jamie!" she cried, her shoulders shaking as she wept into her husband's shoulder.

After a short while, Lily calmed down, while they were sat down to lunch, Hedwig showed up, with another note for Sirius.

"I'm starting to feel a little ignored here," Andrew complained, Snowfire responded by nipping the boy's ear. "I love you too."

The note only said that he'd heard from Ron, that he was being picked up from the Dursleys at 5pm the next day and he'd see Sirius at the cup, hoping that he'd have time to contact Sirius or Andrew once he knew where they were staying the night.

The rest of the day was spent with James and Lily trying on the clothes that Sirius and Dela had gotten for them, thankfully they all fit nicely, so the pair of them would have plenty of clothes for their upcoming trip.

Andrew then packed theirs and Sirius' clothes in with his own in his trunk, making sure they were all ready for the trip. True there was still a full thirty two hours until they had to set off, but it never hurt to be ready.

 **Dartmoor: Mr Roberts' Campsite**

Jax and Mel were laying on the grass, watching the stars come out one by one. Mel sighed happily and snuggled closer to Jax, they had grown closer while they were away from the temple and they were both tempted to become an official couple. But the Order had strict guidelines that had to be followed, like how they couldn't be a Padawan _and_ Apprentice. One of them _had_ to be a Knight or Assassin first.

It was that or they had to ask for the council's permission, something about proving their maturity, there were tales and stories about those who allowed love to drive them to the Sith, before they became extinct, so the Council decided that precautions needed to be taken to keep it from happening again.

"It's a shame that we have to start pretending on Monday," Jax mused, stroking the side of Mel's neck.

"I'm fairly sure Andrew won't tell, he might just try convincing us to go talk to the council and see what they say." Mel answered, they heard something break inside the tent.

"What do you think it was this time?" Jax chuckled.

"Five Knuts says it was a cup." Mel giggled, she laughed harder when a saucer flew out of the tent flap like a Frisbee.

Kain, Raziel, Ratchet, Jak and Sly weren't the type to stay cooped up, but with so many wizards around, the Jedi didn't want to risk Kain or Raziel causing a riot. So, to make it fair for everyone, all five were asked to stay inside. The only exceptions were when Kain and Raziel, accompanied by Jax, needed to feed. Jax would take the pair into the woods so that they could hunt and feed on the odd deer while Mel stayed with the others outside the tent. The general confinement mainly resulted in them throwing things at each other.

The two Jedi got up and stepped back inside the tent, inside it was very spacious, it had six rooms, one for Kain and Raziel, one for Andrew and Jax, one for Ratchet, one for Jak, one for Sly and one for Mel, not that the arrangements stayed the way they were set.

"I know you guys are getting sick of being cooped up, but tomorrow Mr Weasley will be here and he'll give us a better idea of how people will react to you," Mel said apologetically.

"In the meantime, who's hungry?" Jax asked, mainly to Jak, Sly and Ratchet.

 **The Burrow, twenty four hours later**

After the drama of collecting Harry from Privet Drive, Harry got filled in on what his friends had been doing for the last month, Ron was helping Ginny with some of her homework, until Hermione showed up and helped them both get the rest of it done. Harry was also filled in on Fred and George's plans to go into the joke business.

After that, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny watched from Ron's bedroom window as Bill and Charlie made two large tables do airborne battle over the back garden. The four of them cheered on the battle, which only spurred the eldest Weasley boys to make their tables fight harder.

Eventually Percy opened his window and started shouting about how he was trying to work and the older boys called their battle to a halt, they landed their tables and fixed any damage just before their mother came outside to lay out the plates and cutlery.

The Weasleys, Hermione and Harry were sat around the two tables in the back garden, eating dinner.

"By the way, Harry," Mr Weasley said cheerfully, "did you see the paper a few days ago?"

"Yes, I did." Harry answered.

"So you know then. Sirius has been cleared of all charges!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yeah, I read that!" Harry said, over the moon. "Maybe I can leave the Dursleys soon and live with him."

"Has he been in touch with you?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, but he hasn't mentioned me living with him," Harry answered, suddenly wondering why that was the case.

"He's probably just busy getting his life back together," Ron said, guessing what Harry's long face was about. "I mean, he mentioned that he's got a place for you to stay, but it's a safe bet that nobody's been there for thirteen years, so there's probably a crap-load of dust to clean."

"Ron! Language!" Mrs Weasley scolded, having only just heard her son swear.

"Any idea what he's doing with himself now that he's free?" Percy asked.

"He'll probably tell us tomorrow," Hermione answered. "He's staying at the Jedi temple for the time being, I think Andrew's driving him to the Cup."

"Does he even know where he's going?" Bill, the eldest Weasley son, asked, listening in.

"Yes, I told Melanie and Jaxon when they asked where they needed to go," Mrs Weasley answered, referring to a letter she had received from Jax.

"What time are we getting up again?" Fred asked.

"The Portkey leaves at seven minutes past five, so we'll need to get up at four o'clock, give us plenty of time to find it." Mr Weasley answered.

"What's a Portkey?" Harry wondered aloud.

Charley laughed and told him, it was a Muggle item that was enchanted to transport anyone touching it to a set location at a set time.

"So how do Muggles not find them by accident?" Harry asked.

"The Ministry specifically uses items which Muggles would disregard as rubbish, that way Muggles won't think about picking them up." Percy explained, puffing out his chest.

"If everyone's finished eating, I suggest you head on up to bed," Mrs Weasley told them.

Ron, Harry, Fred and George made their way up to Ron's room, just below the attic. Hermione was sharing Ginny's room, and Bill and Charley were taking the twins' bedroom. The plan in the morning was for Mr Weasley to get Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the Twins up while Percy, Bill and Charlie would be Apparating at around lunch time.

 **Jedi Temple**

The next morning, Andrew was awoken by his Master at four in the morning, he quickly showered and got dressed, opting for some black cargo trousers and a black, long-sleeve t-shirt with thumb holes near the hems. He added the finishing touch of a black skintight glove on his right hand, which he covered partially with his sleeve as he pushed his gloved thumb through the hole.

He met James, Lily and Sirius in the Entrance Hall, it was only the four of them and Jarod. Aside from the night-watchmen, everyone else was asleep. They made their way out the main entrance and down the steps, Andrew stepping into the road.

"Katt, normal mode," Andrew said quietly.

Once in her car form, Andrew let go of the steering wheel and stepped out of the car. He helped Sirius stow the tent he was carrying in the boot while James loaded Andrew's trunk and Lily got in the back seat. Once the boot was closed, James joined Lily in the back and Sirius got into the passenger seat while Andrew walked towards the driver-side door. He froze and spun towards the main entrance of the temple as a chill ran through his entire body.

"Something wrong Andrew?" Jarod asked.

Andrew shook his head slowly. "I thought I felt something …" he said slowly. "But if you didn't feel it Master, then it was probably just my imagination." he stopped himself from saying the word 'dark', deciding it was probably just a Dark Jedi wondering by the door, the feeling was gone almost as soon as he felt it. He shrugged and slipped into the driver's seat.

"Now, you're sure you know where you're going?" Jarod asked, leaning in through the open window.

"If he doesn't, I've got Sat Nav," Katt answered, her holographic head appearing above the dashboard lighting up with a smiling face.

"Alright then, have fun, and try not to break _too_ many traffic laws," Jarod joked, stepping away from the car as it set off.

They drove in silence for a while, once they were out of London and on the motorway, Andrew broke the silence. "I do have one favour to ask of you three."

"What's that?" James asked a little nervously, he still wasn't too certain about being in the back seat of a car, while being driven around by an almost fourteen year-old.

"Don't tell anyone about my arm," the young Jedi said sadly. "I don't want them to act differently towards me."

"Of course," Lily said, placing a gentle hand on Andrew's left shoulder.

 **Dartmoor**

The alarm clock went off in Mel's room and she moved to get up, only to be pulled back down by Jax. "We've got an hour, at least, before anybody shows up," he mumbled into her hair, causing her to giggle.

"And we need to look like we've not slept in the same bed before then," she answered.

"Dun care, 'nother half-hour," Jax demanded sleepily.

Mel blushed a little and laid back down, cuddling back into her boyfriend. "Alright, thirty minutes."

 **The Burrow**

Harry, Ron, Fred and George stumbled into the kitchen, all walking like zombies, Mrs Weasley left shortly afterwards to make sure the girls were up and after a quick breakfast, they left to find the Portkey.

Mr Weasley led the way to the top of Stoatshead Hill, where they met Amos and Cedric Diggory, who had already found the Portkey, in the form of an old and tattered boot. "Interesting business at the Ministry, eh?" Amos said.

"You mean Black, oh yes, definitely," Arthur said, looking at his watch. "A minute to go, we'd best get ready."

The nine of them all made sure they were touching the old boot that Mr Diggory was holding, some of them only getting a fingertip on it.

At exactly seven minutes past five, there was a sudden pull as they shot off and landed in a heap.

"Seven minutes past five from Stoatshead Hill," said a tired voice, belonging to a man with a clipboard and a quill, as he ticked off something on his parchment.

"Morning, Basil," said Mr Weasley.

"Hello there, Arthur," Basil answered, taking the boot from Mr Weasley and tossing it onto a nearby pile of used Portkeys. "Not on duty, eh, nice for some."

Basil looked down his list and told the Weasleys that they were in Mr Robert's Campsite, the Diggorys were two fields in the opposite direction. "… ask for Mr Payne."

After a minute of walking, Ron spoke up. "Payne, eh … think it's a relative of Andrew's?"

"I doubt it, Ron," Hermione answered. "You'd be surprised how common a Muggle name Payne is."

Back at their tent, Jax and Mel had gotten dressed and started a fire, Mel placed the wood and Jax pointed a finger as Force Lightning struck it. Mel looked over to where the Weasleys were meant to be setting up and giggled, not for the first time, at the misspelling of their name.

"Couldn't have a better spot!" they heard Mr Weasley call out. "Oh, good morning you two."

"Morning, Mr Weasley," Jax answered, offering him a fresh cup of tea.

"Need some help with your tents?" Mel asked.

"Oh, thank you!" he cried. "I was worried it would take forever to pitch them without magic."

"Why make it harder for yourself?" Jax asked, helping Fred take a pack off his back.

"Ministry orders," Arthur said simply.

"Oh trust me, you wouldn't be the first one breaking rules," Jax told him. "One family has a 'tent' that looks like it was built from bricks and mortar and even had frigging _canons_ on the ramparts!"

Fred and George seemed to find Jax's outburst funny and fought not to laugh. "Well, we should still set an example, no magic." Arthur insisted while Mel busied herself by using the Force to pitch the girl's tent.

 **Somewhere Outside Bristol**

They had stopped at some services, mainly to stretch their legs and relieve themselves.

"How much longer until we get there?" Lily asked, she was both anxious and eager to see her son.

"Well, we've made good time so far, mainly due to the lack of traffic," Andrew answered, leaning back on Katt's bonnet and asking Katt for the time, it was five-thirty. "I reckon we'll be there by eight at the latest, and that's _if_ we run into traffic."

"Couldn't we just go airborne if that happened?" Sirius asked.

"We could," Andrew answered, "but I'm expecting narrow farmers roads when we get there, and they make for a tricky landing." he explained. "If we can, I'd rather stay on the ground all the way and avoid any altercations with the campsite owner.

"Okay, I'm back," James announced, "we ready to get going again?"

"Just as soon as we've all eaten something," Andrew said, passing around sandwiches he'd bought. "We can have some proper food when we get there."

Ten minutes later, they were on the road again.

A couple of hours later, they pulled to a stop at the gate to their campsite, Andrew lowered his window and explained that they were staying at a reservation that was already paid for and the gentleman opened the vehicle gate to let them in. "Speed limit's five miles an hour."

Andrew asked Katt to control the speed and set off at a crawl. "I'm amazed that he didn't ask about me driving at my age," Andrew stated. "I get it a lot."

"I guess you didn't notice the look on his face, he's had his memory modified multiple times lately, probably once in the last few minutes." James chuckled.

"Makes sense," Sirius laughed as some children hovered, just barely, over the bonnet of the car on broomsticks. "Probably noticed some of the stunts this lot have been getting up to.

Andrew laughed too and continued to drive at a mere five miles per hour, soon enough he came to where three tents were already pitched by some woods.

"Oh, who's this?" Ginny asked as a bright red Aston Martin pulled up, the driver-side window descended with a whine to reveal Andrew's face.

"Morning all!" Andrew called as he leant out of the window, Sirius got out of the other side and Ginny and Mel ran over to hug him. Andrew, strangely enough, climbed out through the window and leant into the car to grab his lightsaber, before turning around and leaning back on the open window.

"Where's Harry, Ron and Hermione?" Sirius asked, looking around.

"Gone to get water," Fred said, dumping a pile of wood at his own feet.

Mr Weasley arranged the wood in a sensible pile and started trying to light a fire with matches, but after the third match broke, Jak took a spare stick, stuck it into his and Mel's fire and then slid the burning stick into the bottom of Arthur's pile.

"Thank you, Jaxon," Arthur said.

"Why the hell didn't you just use magic?" Sirius asked, perplexed.

"Anti-Muggle Security, we've been asked to act as Muggle as possible." Mr Weasley answered, getting up and offering his hand. "Arthur Weasley."

"Sirius Black," Sirius answered, shaking hands.

"Hello, Andrew!" Hermione called.

"Morning," Andrew said cheerfully, suddenly nervous about how this was about to go. He waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione to put their water down before he said anything else. "Harry, I've got a surprise for you."

"Oh really, what?" Harry asked.

"I know it's a little late," Andrew said, taking hold of the handle for the driver-side door, "but happy birthday!"

He opened the door and moved the driver's seat out of the way, Sirius did the same on the other side of the car. Lily stepped out, beaming at her son, as James stood up straight and leant casually on the roof.

There was a collective gasp from everyone gathered, except Mel, Jax, Andrew and Sirius, who was also beaming.

"Hello, Harry," Lily said.

 **Well, that's all for this month, I'm fully expecting complaints for the cliffhanger, but that just means you're guaranteed to read next month ^_^**


	3. Family Reunion at the World Cup

**Disclaimer: Good news, I'm settled in at my new address, bad news, I still own nothing.**

 **Hi all, welcome to March, and welcome to chapter 3, enjoy the read and please review.**

Chapter 3 – Family Reunion at the World Cup

"… Mum? Dad?" Harry said numbly, lost for any other words. Lily's smile broadened as she opened her arms and dropped to one knee. Harry shook himself out of his shock, glanced at Andrew's grinning face, before running into his mother's arms.

James came around the car and embraced his family, while Ginny broke everyone else's silence. "H-how?" she asked, tears in her eyes at the emotional scene.

"Why don't we brew up some tea and Andrew can explain." Mel suggested, everyone nodded and got to boiling some water.

Andrew meanwhile hopped, feet first, through the window of the car, keeping the window down, and said, "Katt, watch mode."

" _Initiating transformation_." Katt replied, leaving the Weasleys, Hermione and Harry to watch in amazement as an Aston Martin transform itself into a watch on Andrew's left wrist. " _Transformation complete_."

"You finished it then?" George asked with a grin.

"Yep _she's_ finished, with a little help from a certain Anthony Stark." Andrew answered.

Hermione gasped. "How do you know a genius like him?" she demanded.

"That's part of the story I'm about to tell," Andrew laughed as he took a seat by Mel. "Just bare in mind, I don't remember _all_ the details."

"How can that be?" Hermione asked. "You have an eidetic memory."

"True, but some of what I had to do was criminal, so Dumbledore erased some of my memory so that I couldn't be held accountable." Andrew explained.

So the thirteen of them sat around the fire, drinking their tea, while Andrew told the whole story, starting from the visit to Hagrid, just before Buckbeak was to be executed. He told the story of being attacked by Sirius in his dog form, getting under the Whomping Willow, how it led to the Shrieking Shack. Then he explained everything that Sirius and Remus told them about their days at school and the bait and switch that Sirius suggested they try to pull to keep Harry and his parents safe.

From there he skipped over Snape's intervention and jumped ahead to Scabbers being revealed as Peter Pettigrew and Harry stepping between Sirius and Remus to spare the traitor's life, then Hermione stepped in and explained that the idea of turning Pettigrew in went wrong when the full moon came out.

"Oh no, Moony's problem!" James groaned.

"Yep, the little worm escaped in the confusion of Lupin's transformation!" Andrew growled angrily.

Andrew carried on telling the story from when he heard Sirius screaming, telling the story of him and Jax fighting over the man's life. He paused to apologise again to Jax for having to stab him.

"Think nothing of it mate, I almost did the same," Jax told him with a grin, pretending to rub the already healed burn mark on his chest. "I'm the one who should _really_ be sorry, my blade could've _killed_ you!"

"True. Anyway, so Dumbledore asked me, Harry and Hermione to use her Time-Turner to go back and rescue Buckbeak, so that Sirius could literally fly away." Andrew continued. "Only problem was, Hermione's chain wasn't long enough for the three of us, so I used the duplication charm to make a copy."

"I take it you returned it," said Mr Weasley, looking a little disapproving.

"I did not," Andrew replied, looking slightly defiant. "To this day, I'm positive that the Ministry has _no_ idea that the copy even existed. The two were _identical_ , right down to the serial number."

"Ah, so when Hermione returned hers, the Ministry had all Time-Turners accounted for." said James.

"Exactly, now I can't remember the specifics here, as I said, I asked Professor Dumbledore to erase _all_ knowledge of what I used from my mind, but I do remember that the Time-Turner was destroyed in the process." Andrew continued. "I mean, I remember _using_ it, and I remember everything that happened _while_ I was using it. But ask me how I made the damn thing and I _really_ can't tell you!"

"So you used the Time-Turner to make a device which would allow you to travel back and forth in time," Harry said, happy and grateful tears were openly flowing down his cheeks as he held Lily's hand and leant against James' arm. "But how come I still remember my parents dying?" he asked, before muttering, "Thank you Dementors." Lily rubbed his shoulder gently, having kept her free arm around her son since they first hugged.

"Because before I even attempted to go back in time, I made these pills, infused with the duplication charm," Andrew explained. "Organic duplicates have a limited lifespan of thirty minutes, according to the Committee on Experimental Charms."

"So you had us swallow those pills and left our clones to die at Voldemort's hands?" Lily asked.

"Exactly, then I brought the two of you back to the present, and history hasn't changed one bit." Andrew finished, choosing not to go into details of what happened in the past, lest he let slip about his arm. He also skipped over his first trip, too far into the past, and how he'd accidentally changed the present as a result

"That's bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed.

"Thank you!" Andrew said with a bow, grinning brightly before he let out a chuckle.

"So you two must be the new witnesses that 'The Daily Prophet' was on about." Fred said.

"We are, and now Sirius' name's been cleared and he can go back to a normal life." Lily said, Harry couldn't help but beam.

"So when can I leave the Dursleys?" he asked.

"Just as soon as we can sort things out," James said, patting Harry's free shoulder.

"We have to re-establish our home with the Wizarding community, claim legal custody over you with the Muggle community, even if Petunia just allows us to take you back, there's still forms and red tape to go through." Lily added.

"So hopefully before the next summer holiday!" Sirius said happily. "Worst case scenario, you might have to go back there one more time to pack."

"So where are you staying in the meantime?" Arthur asked.

"At the Jedi temple," Sirius answered. "It's where I was hiding out until James and Lily called for the retrial."

They passed the time by helping James, Lily and Sirius to pitch their tent, which was identical to Mel and Jax's. During this commotion, Andrew's band slipped out of their tent and swiftly made their way into the stadium.

"Oh great!" Jax exclaimed, having rehearsed this well in advance. "'Prison break'!" he joked, pointing after them.

"I'm on it," Andrew called as he took off into the trees.

"Why are they even here?" Ron asked.

"They needed some time out of the temple, _serious_ cabin fever," Mel supplied.

"I'll just see what they're getting up to," Andrew said as he came back from the woods. "But before I 'forget', Mel, Jax, these are for you."

He tossed them both a scanner-camera and a bracelet before he darted off again.

A short while after the fourth tent was pitched, the group sat down and had another cup of tea, watching Ministry members darting to and from the stadium while Arthur gave a running commentary of who was who and what department they were in.

That became a little boring after a while, so instead talk turned to catching Lily and James up on everything they could think of, from how they had all met each other to little anecdotes from their lessons.

"So you were never born a witch, Mel?" Lily asked, curious.

"No, during the summer of Andrew's and Jax's first year, I got hit by a car after the three of us broke up a bank robbery." Mel answered, rubbing her shoulder as phantom pains shot through her. Jax took over, talking through gritted teeth.

"I nearly lost my temper and killed the taxi driver, I was an angrier person then, but Andrew stopped me and made the driver take us home. Then while in halls of healing, I offered my blood, we'd run out of her blood type, thankfully we're both AB-Negative." he explained, calming down a little.

"So you got your boyfriend's powers along with his blood." James grinned.

Both Mel and Jax were about to deny that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, when they were interrupted by the sound of instruments being tuned.

"That's coming from the stadium isn't it?" Ron asked, looking towards the trees.

"Yes, the Minister said something about hiring a band for a prematch concert," Arthur mused. "I guess that's them."

"You think it's The Weird Sisters?!" Ginny squealed.

"I don't think so," James pointed out, listening and playing his part. "I don't hear any bagpipes."

They listened intently, until suddenly they heard. "Ooga-chaka Ooga-ooga!" over and over.

"What the heck?" Sirius asked.

"I can't stop this feeling, deep inside of me." a new voice sang while the chanting continued. "Girl, you just don't realise, what you do to me."

"I know this song, it came out when I was 12, is it still big now?" Lily asked. Harry told her that he'd never heard it before.

"When you hold me, in your arms so tight. You let me know, everything's alright."

Then the chanting stopped with, "I'm hooked on a feeling..." the chanting was then replaced with a mixture of drums, a trumpet and an electric guitar.

"I've no idea who they are, but they're good." Hermione said.

The group sat there, just enjoying the music. Percy, Bill and Charley came out of the woods while lunch was being cooked, they did a double take when they saw James, Lily and Sirius. After the introductions were made they all started eating.

Suddenly the band struck up a new song and Hermione groaned, pushing her face into her hands. "You know this one Hermione?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"Yes, my cousins are obsessed with the television show it's from," she answered, annoyed.

They listened as the drums and guitar played together, the guitar sped up dramatically and then...

"They've got, a power and a force that you've never seen before!" sang whoever it was. "They've got, the ability to morph and to even up the score!"

The boys were bobbing their heads to the beat from the drum, the adults and Ginny just listened with curiosity. "I swear that voice is familiar!" George called out, not really able to place where he'd heard it.

"No-one can ever take them down, the power lies on their si-ei-ei-ei-ei-eide!" The drums sped up and three distinct voices sang…

"Go go power rangers!" a keyboard played six notes. "Go go power rangers!" again the keyboard was heard. "Go go power rangers! Mighty morphin' power rangers!"

"I'm enjoying this!" Ron called over the noise.

"Same here," said the twins.

"It's too noisy for my liking," sniffed Percy.

"You _would_ say that," Bill said with a playful shove to his younger brother.

"Ah, here's the man of the hour, Ludo, come join us for a moment!" Arthur called.

"Ahoy there! Good choice from old Fudge eh?" Ludo Bagman said cheerfully as he sat down.

"Yes, I think so," Arthur answered, quickly making introductions while Percy politely shook hands with Bagman. Ludo did a slight double-take at the mention of Harry, but completely fell over when James and Lily were introduced.

"I-I thought you were dead!" Ludo said in shock.

"It's … a long story," Lily said apologetically.

"You'll have to get me up to speed sometime." Bagman said.

"Everyone, this is Ludo Bagman, it's thanks to him that we have such good tickets." Arthur explained.

"Oh, well then thanks Ludo," James said. "You'll have to let me know what I owe you Arthur," he added.

Ludo beamed and waved his hand as if to say it had been nothing. "Anyone fancy a flutter on the match?" he asked eagerly.

"Sadly no, not had a chance to get to Diagon Alley yet," James said, adding with a look from his wife, "besides, I uh don't gamble."

Harry couldn't help but laugh. Arthur thought about it and put a Galleon on Ireland to win, while Fred and George put thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles and three Knuts on Ireland to win, while Victor Krum from Bulgaria would catch the Snitch.

"Couldn't do us a brew could you Arthur? I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying." Bagman said.

"Perhaps I can help," Jax offered. "I'm fluent in Bulgarian."

"At your age?" Bagman asked.

"It's something of a requirement in the Order," explained Mel, that's when Bagman noticed the simple jewellery that marked her as a female Padawan.

"Oh well by all means then," Bagman said cheerfully. "We'll just finish up our tea and then go look for the chap."

At that point, the song changed, flowing perfectly into another song.

"I wanna be the very best, like no-one ever was." the lead guitar played four descending notes. "To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause."

Mel giggled and started to sing along. "I will travel across the land, searching far and wide."

Jax grinned and sang too, their tones mingling perfectly. "Each Pokémon to understand, the power that's inside."

Instead of the chorus being sung, the band just played their instruments. Not that that stopped Mel and Jax from some impromptu karaoke.

"Pokémon, gotta catch 'em all!" Mel chimed.

"It's you and me," Jax added.

"I know it's my destiny!" they harmonised, before descending into giggles.

"The more I hear them, the more I look forward to this concert," Ludo said, drinking the last of his tea and getting to his feet. "If you're ready, we'll go and find my opposite number."

"Ah, there you are Ludo," said a new voice, it was Mr Crouch, who had just Apparated next to them. Unlike any other wizard they had seen today, Crouch was completely undistinguishable from a Muggle.

"Oh, Barty! I was hoping to find you around here!" Bagman called. "Pull up a bit of grass."

"No thank you, Ludo," Crouch said impatiently. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting that we add another twelve seats to the Top Box."

"Oh is _that_ what they were after?"Bagman said, clicking his fingers. "I thought he was after some tweezers. The chap has a bit of a strong accent."

"Mr Crouch!" Percy said breathlessly, half-bowing and looking a little like a hunchback. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh, yes – thank you, Weatherby," Crouch said, taking the tea and sitting down while Fred and George snorted into their cups.

"Oh, the music stopped!" Ginny said suddenly, drawing attention to the fact that it was quiet again.

Arthur, Crouch and Bagman then spent a while talking shop, mainly about someone wanting to export flying carpets to the UK. Then talk turned to what was happening after the world cup, something taking place at Hogwarts.

Crouch then cut Bagman off before he could say too much, saying they had to go see the Bulgarians. The Weasley kids tried to ask their father what was happening, but he wasn't telling.

"I don't suppose you know?" Harry whispered to his parents and Sirius.

"Sorry, no idea," James whispered back, chuckling, "been a little bit out of the loop."

Shortly after Bagman and Crouch had left, Andrew returned with the others in tow, Kain had a suspiciously red stain on his chin.

"Caught these two hunting deer," Andrew complained as Ratchet, Jak and Sly helped Raziel pull a dead elk behind them.

"Great! Dinner's sorted!" Sirius cheered.

"Who the heck are _they_!" Andrew exclaimed, pointing at some men who were Apparating every few feet, loaded with trays.

James looked where the Jedi was pointing and smirked a little. "Salesmen, they'll be loaded with souvenirs, flags, scarves, stuff like that."

When a salesman got to them, everyone bought something, Jax covered James, Lily and Sirius, but in general, everyone just got scarves and hats to show their support for Ireland. The only difference was Harry, who bought five pairs of Omnioculars, his mother said she didn't want any.

"Hang on, oh no, where have they gone now!" Andrew shouted an hour later, jumping to his feet. Kain and the others were gone, again.

Jax closed his eyes and opened his senses, then he pointed into the trees and said, "That-away."

Andrew growled, pocketed the Omnioculars he'd bought for himself and ran off, ten minutes after he was gone, there was a booming gong sound, accompanied by the lighting of several red and green lanterns, lighting the way to the stadium.

"It's time!" announced Arthur, looking as excited as any of them. "Come on, let's go!"

"What about Andrew?" Ron asked, looking around for his friend while they walked.

"I'm already telling him where we are, he'll find us when he can." Mel answered, two fingers of each hand pressed to her temples.

They walked for twenty minutes, laughing and joking all the way, Harry stayed between his parents, always fearing that he was about to wake up and find them gone.

When they got into view of the stadium, Harry just stared at it.

"Seats a hundred thousand," Mr Weasley explained. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year."

"I'm guessing it's laced with Muggle-Repelling Charms," Lily said, smiling at the golden walls.

"Exactly, every time a Muggle has gotten close, they've suddenly remembered an urgent appointment they had to get to," Arthur answered, adding fondly, "bless them."

He handed their tickets over to a witch by the nearest entrance, explaining that there was one more of their party to come.

"Not to worry, Arthur, I'll keep an eye out for him!" she answered, then she gave them directions to get to their seats.

When they finally got to the top box, a little exhausted, they found thirty plush purple seats, if it were an American Football stadium, they would be on the fifty yard line.

Everyone except Sirius took their seats, he was waiting for Fudge so that he could be told where he was sitting.

Down on the pitch, Andrew was pacing nervously. He had donned a hooded cloak, to hide his face, pulled on some platform boots to look taller and removed the glove from his hand, hoping that anyone who knew him would see it and not think he was on the stage.

"Dude, will you relax?" Ratchet demanded after about five minutes of this. "Those boots are making the stage vibrate!"

"Relax? How the hell can I relax! We're about to perform in front of a hundred thousand people!" Andrew exploded, waving frantically around at the gathering crowd.

"It will be fine, few people know us, and those that do won't see your face." Kain said simply.

"Just do what you always do," Jak said, "close your eyes, wait for the music to start and let force of habit take over."

"I suppose you're right," Andrew said, sagging a little before taking a deep breath.

Back up in the box, Draco and his parents had just arrived, Jax offered him a casual wave, which Draco didn't return, glancing apologetically at his friend while his father glared slightly.

"Everyone ready?" Ludo Bagman asked as he practically bounced into the box.

"No sign of Mr Crouch," Mel muttered, feeling sorry for his House Elf, she had offered Winky a blindfold so that she couldn't see how high they were, but she had politely refused.

"Yes, yes, Ludo, I'll make the announcement and the concert can begin." Fudge said, walking to the front of the box, he placed the tip of his wand to his neck and said "Soronus!" magnifying his voice to be heard all around the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure, to welcome each and every one of you, to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators around the stadium screamed and clapped as they waved thousands of flags.

"Now, before we start the match, I have arranged something of a surprise for you all, no doubt you heard them practising earlier." Fudge continued, more screams were the answer. "All the way from London, I give you, Kain on drums!"

Kain played a little flurry on his set, finishing with a crash on the cymbals, while spot lights focused on him.

"Raziel on lead guitar!" Raziel played a quick riff as the lights moved to him, some of the girls in the crowd gawked at him as he flashed a smile and flexed his wings.

"Ratchet on base!" Ratchet also played the opening riff to 'Another One Bites the Dust'. "Sly on keyboard!" Sly gave a jingle. "Jak on … pretty much everything else?"

As a response, Jak pulled out a saxophone and played the opening of a cavalry charge. There were a few laughs in Harry's group as the stadium erupted with "CHARGE!"

"And finally, a mystery man as the lead singer. Ladies and gentlemen … The Immortals!"

There was a brief roar from the crowd, then silence as the lights went out. Sly started playing some long notes, coupled with some echoing words.

"Immortals … Immortals … not for long, for long."

A hum began to build up in the background, growing louder and louder, until...

There was an explosion, met with screams from the crowd as Kain tapped his cymbals and Raziel started to play his guitar.

"Let's rock!" shouted the singer into his microphone. "They say we are what we are, but we don't have to be. I'm bad behaviour, but I do it in the best way!"

The lights got brighter, showing Jak and Ratchet playing guitars too. "I'll be the watcher, of the eternal flame. I'll be the guard dog, of all your fever dreams."

Ratchet and Jak then vocalised before Ratchet sang, "I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass glass."

"I try to picture me without you," Jak sang. "But I can't."

"Cause we could be Immortals, Immortals!" Jak, Ratchet and the mystery singer sang together. "Just not for long, for long."

"And live with me forever now," Ratchet sang, his voice a little higher than the hooded figure.

"Pull the blackout curtains down," Jak had the deepest voice of the group.

"Just not for long, for long," chimed the mystery singer.

"We are The Immor… Immortals." the three together were in perfect harmony. "Immor… Immortals!"

When the chorus was over, the lead singer was punching the air, the sleeve of his robe slipping down to his elbow, this dazzled and scared some of the audience as they realised that he had had some kind of horrific accident, because the arm was made entirely of shiny metal and reflected the stadium lights everywhere.

"I recognise most of them," Harry called to Ron and Hermione over the loud music, looking through his Omnioculars.

"I know I've seen that Raziel before, he helped us to get you two years ago!" Ron answered.

"You don't think that's Andrew in the cloak, do you?" Hermione asked.

"No way, you seen that hand? Andrew would have told us if something like that had happened to him!" Ron answered.

"Scream!" came a shout from the stage, most of the stadium did so. Soon enough, most of the stadium was singing along with the chorus..

A little too soon, the song ended, but the crowd was screaming its approval as the lead singer, still hiding his face, stepped forward.

"Hello world!" he called into the microphone. "May I just say, thank you so much for the warm welcome. This is actually our first ever performance, so forgive us if we seem a little nervous.."

"Speak for yourself, I'm digging this!" Ratchet shouted, causing the crowd to cheer.

"OK, well, moving on to our next song … by way of applause, are there any fathers in the audience tonight?" the hooded figure asked, one person started clapping. "Seriously? Just one?"

More men in the audience started clapping. "That's better, now, keep clapping if you happen to have a daughter," some of the clapping stopped, " _now_ keep clapping if she happens to be of age, and no, I'm not trying to score a date!"

Harry laughed loudly, Draco started coughing to mask his own laughter, causing his father to look very disapproving.

"I'm telling you, it's Andrew's voice!" Hermione hissed.

On the stage, the singer looked around with a smile. "Well this song, gentlemen, is for you."

Sly played a note on his keyboard, programmed to sound like a normal piano. "My tears are falling, cause you've taken her away. And though it really hurts me so, there's something that I gotta say."

Kain joined in with some soft drumming while Andrew and Ratchet sang together. "Take good care of my, baby."

"Please don't ever make her blue. Just tell her that you love her, make sure you're thinking of her, in everything you say and do." sang Andrew by himself, Jak playing a violin.

"Oh, take good care of my baby," Ratchet and Sly sang.

"Now don't you ever make her cry. Just let your love surround her, paint a rainbow all around her, don't let her see a cloudy sky." Andrew sang along again, before being joined by Ratchet and Sly.

"Once upon a time, that little girl was mine. If I'd been true, I know she'd never be with you. So, take good care of my, baby."

Ratchet and Sly stopped singing to let Andrew go alone again.

"Be just as kind as you can be. And if you should discover, that you don't really love her, just send my baby back, home, to, me."

After that the song started to fade out, leaving a few with tears in their eyes as they applauded. After the applause died down a little, the mystery singer spoke again.

"Now, I know everyone's eager to get on with the match, so I promise, we're just gonna do two more songs … maybe three, then we'll get out of the way. So, for our next song, who likes Disney?!" There were cheers scattered around the stadium. "Well don't cheer too much, I think you might hate us when this one's over."

With that, Raziel started playing a few high notes, followed by Kain tapping his cymbals, this was clearly a metal song. After a short moment of Kain, Raziel and Ratchet playing together, Jak started singing in a death metal style … more like screeching really.

"Make way, for Prince Ali! Say 'hey!' It's Prince Ali!"

Then Andrew started to sing normally, keeping his microphone on the stand and using his hands to dance and gesture. "Hey! Clear the way, in the old bazaar. Hey you! Let us through! It's a bright new star! Oh come! Be the first on your block, to meet his eye!"

"Make way, here he comes," he pointed to Jak, "ring the bells," then to Kain, "bang the drums. Are ya gonna love this guy!"

Next he and Ratchet sang the chorus together while Jak growled along in the background. "Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa!"

"Genuflect, show some respect, down on one knee!" Andrew sang, pointing towards the ground as he dropped to one knee, springing back to his feet. "Now, try your best to stay calm. Brush up your Sunday salaam. Then come and meet his spectacular coterie!"

Up in the box, Lily and Hermione looked horrified that a classic song had been so brutally assaulted, while Ginny and the others were bobbing their heads along.

"Could do without the death metal!" Mel shouted over the volume.

"What're you talking about!" Jax demanded. "Death metal is awesome!"

"Only to you, ( _my love_ )!" Mel answered, patting her boyfriend's hand gently.

Down on the pitch they were nearing the end of the song.

"Prince Ali! Amorous he! Ali Ababwa." Andrew, Ratchet and Jak sang together.

"Heard your princess was a sight, lovely to see," Andrew continued. "And that, good people, is why," Andrew mimed fixing a neck-tie. "'We' got dolled up and dropped by."

"With sixty elephants, llamas galore," the group sang. "With bears and lions, a brass band and more. With forty fakirs, his cooks and bakers, and birds that warble on key. Make way!" Andrew threw his hands to either side of him, as if to part a crowd. "For Prince, Ali! YEAH!"

Most of the crowd cheered and applauded. "Thank you!" Andrew called, taking a deep breath. "If you enjoyed that, feel free to check out the guy who inspired us, the great Jonathan Young. Most, if not all, of his work can be found on Youtube, check him out because he's awesome!"

 **A/N Seriously, check him out, he does more than Disney covers.**

"So, getting onto our next song, this one's originally by Good Charlotte," there were a few cheers just below the top box. "See we've got some 'Charlotte' fans, thanks for coming. This is 'SOS'"

This was met with a thunderous cheer.

Immediately, Jak started to play an acoustic guitar while Andrew took the microphone from its stand and started to sing. "Is anybody listening? Can you hear me when I call? I'm shooting signals in the air, 'cause I need somebody's help. I can't make it on my own, so I'm giving up myself. Is anybody listening? Listening."

The whole band started to play as Andrew continued with the lyrics. "I've been stranded here, and I'm miles away. Making signals, hoping they _save_ me. I lock myself, inside these walls, 'cause out there I'm always wrong. I don't think I'm gonna _make_ it."

"So while I'm sitting here," Andrew sang along, then joined by Ratchet, "on the eve of my defeat."

"I write this letter and hope it _saves_ me!"

For the second chorus, all three singers joined in one voice, joined by a few in the crowd.

"I'm stuck in my own head and I'm oceans away. Would anybody notice _if_ I chose to stay? I send an S.O.S. tonight, and wonder if I will survive. How in the hell did I get _so_ far away this time?"

"So while I'm sitting here," again, Ratchet joined in, "the time of my departure's near."

"I say a prayer, please someone _save_ me!"

The whole crowd sang the chorus, so loudly that they almost drowned out the band.

"I'm lost here, I can't make it on my own. I don't wanna die alone." Andrew sang.

"I'm so scared," Jak and Ratchet sang.

"Drowning now, reaching out. Holding onto everything," Andrew continued.

"I love." The three of them finished.

"Crying out, dying now," suddenly an electric guitar was in Andrew's hand. "Need some help!"

Then he stood back to back with Raziel and the two played an instrumental in perfect unison, until all but Jak's acoustic guitar had stopped and Andrew softly sang one last chorus into his microphone.

Jak played the last note on his guitar and allowed it to fade, there was silence in the stadium, then cheers and applause.

Andrew handed his guitar off to a technician and walked back to centre stage. "Thank you!" he cried out, the microphone sitting happily on top of a stand. "Okay, it's time for our last song, then I'll hand over to our commentator to call out our teams."

He started to stamp his right foot twice, then he clapped his hands above his head. "I want everybody doing this!" he announced, repeating the action over and over.

Up in the top box, everyone except the Malfoys was on their feet, stamping and clapping.

"( _Wish I could join in,_ )" Draco said to Jax.

"( _I know_ )" Jax answered.

Once they were happy that enough people were joining in, Andrew started to sing. "Buddy you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street, gonna be a big _man_ someday! You got mud on your face! You big disgrace. Kicking your can all over the place! Singing.."

He held his microphone out towards the crowd, causing a surprising amount of them to sing back, "We will, we will, rock you!" while they briefly stopped stamping and clapping.

Smiling, Andrew brought the microphone back to his lips and sang the line again with the audience.

"Buddy you're a young man, hard man, shouting in the street, gonna take on the _world_ someday. You got blood on your face! You big disgrace, waving your banner all over the place."

This time even those who didn't know the song was singing along, making the chorus that much louder.

"Sing it!" Andrew shouted to the crowd, causing them to sing even louder.

"Buddy you're an old man, poor man, pleading with your eyes, gonna make you some _peace_ someday! You've got mud on your face! You big disgrace. Somebody better put you back into your _place_!"

"We will, we will, rock you!"

"Sing it!"

"We will, we will, rock you!"

"COME ON!"

Up in the top box, even Draco was silently mouthing the words.

"Everybody now, WE WILL, WE WILL, ROCK YOU!"

Then Raziel started to play on his electric guitar while the crowd repeated the chorus over and over, as the music slowly faded out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's been our _pleasure_ performing for you tonight, we are The Immortals." Andrew said, smiling. "Please enjoy the match, may the best team win and have a great evening!"

The crowd cheered and applauded loudly.

"Thank you and good night!" Sly shouted into Andrew's microphone, having leaped into the Jedi's back, while punching the air.

The lights on the stage were shut off and the band packed away while shooing Andrew off. He leapt off the stage and took off running, ditching the hooded robe, swapping his boots for trainers and pulling a glove onto his right hand.

He found the official who had directed Arthur and his group to their seats and, after getting directions himself, started running up the stairs.

"Couldn't find them," he told his friends, panting a little. "What did I miss?"

"The concert, they were all on the stage down there," Ron explained, pointing.

Andrew paused, frowned, and exploded. "Well that's just GREAT!" throwing his hands up in rage.

He sat in his seat in a huff, pulling out his Omnioculars and almost slamming them against his eyes, looking at the board which now said 'BULGARIA: ZERO, IRELAND: ZERO'.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce … the Bulgarian Team Mascots!" Ludo announced, causing the right-hand side of the stands to erupt in cheers.

"I wonder what they've brought?" Arthur wondered aloud as he leaned forward. "Aaah! _Veela!_ " he cried, hurriedly wiping his glasses.

Andrew was just about to ask what the hell a Veela was, when he saw for himself. They were gorgeous women, not that Andrew was too fussed. Jax on the other hand took the time to stare at Mel like she was the only thing worth looking at.

Then the music started, causing Andrew to become entranced, he fought it, focusing on the training he had been undergoing. He focused and raised his mental shields, and suddenly he couldn't hear the music.

"Harry, what _are_ you doing?" Hermione demanded, bringing Andrew out of his 'trance'. He noticed that Harry and Ron were on the verge of leaping from the top box, though Lily was gently holding Harry's hand and kindly brought him back to his seat.

There were angry shouts from all around the stadium as the Veela stopped dancing and sat along the edge of the pitch.

Bagman then called for the Irish mascots, which turned out to be leprechauns, who rained gold coins onto the crowd.

Ron shoved a fist full of coins into Harry's hand, declaring that he'd paid off the Omnioculars that Harry had bought for him and that Harry now had to give Ron a Christmas present. After the leprechauns finished their aerial display, Bagman announced the Bulgarian players.

It was the second taste of the difference between school Quidditch and professional, first the mascots, then this. At school, the players simply marched out onto the bitch, captains shook hands and then the players kicked off the ground to go airborne. It seemed that professional players flew out onto the pitch on his or her broomstick as the commentator announced their name.

"That's him, that's him!" Ron yelled as Viktor Krum was the last Bulgarian player to be called.

"He doesn't look much older than you James!" Andrew yelled.

"What do you expect, I jumped thirteen years!" James joked back.

"Wait, that means I'm only seven years younger than you both?" Harry wondered aloud.

"Um, oops?" Andrew asked, having not considered that as a factor when he rescued James and Lily from Voldemort.

Bagman then announced the Irish team, then finally the referee who hailed from Egypt. Hassan Mostafa marched onto the pitch, decked in golden robes, a silver whistle around his neck, the ball crate under one arm and his own broom in his other hand.

Mostafa mounted his broom in the centre of the pitch and kicked the crate open, the Bludgers shot off in opposite directions, the Snitch vanished almost instantly and he blew his whistle as he threw the Quaffle into the sky.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman.

 **A/N I'm taking a page from the movie's book and skipping the match, I don't think I could do much with the match other than copy it word for word from the book and I don't want to be that guy.**

Thirty minutes, an amazing match and one award ceremony later, Harry and his friends and family were hanging around and talking while they waited for the stadium to clear out a little.

"Mr Malfoy?" Andrew called politely, the man paused and turned to sneer at the Jedi. "You'll find it easier to leave the stadium if you wait for the rush to pass through, just a friendly suggestion."

"Thank you, young man," Lucius said, feigning manners. "But I'll decide what my family shall do with ourselves." he sneered and swept from the box, Draco and his mother in tow.

Andrew shrugged. "Can't blame me for trying to be nice, right?"

"Nah, idiots will always be twats mate." Jax answered, only for Lily to lightly scold him. "Sorry, Mrs Potter."

"I gotta say it, no disrespect intended," Andrew started. "But that Irish Seeker _was_ useless!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny demanded. "Just 'cause Krum caught the Snitch?"

"Oh, no, not in the least," Jax answered. "That just meant Krum was the better Seeker, Lynch was just an idiot!"

"Please explain dear," Mel said, covering her mouth as she slipped up, everyone else just smiled.

"I could understand falling for that Wronski Feint move once … but _twice_? In the space of fifteen to twenty _minutes_?!" Jax ranted.

"So he's gullible," Charlie said defensively, shrugging a little. "Nothing wrong with that."

"I know Harry wouldn't have fallen for it more than once!" Fred cheered, reaching behind James to pat Harry eagerly on the back.

"You're a seeker, Harry?" James asked, perking up massively.

"Yeah, just like you!" Harry beamed as James ruffled his son's hair. "We won the cup a few months ago, for the first time in seven years!"

"Fantastic!" James and Charlie cheered together. "Wait," Charlie said, "you mean we haven't won since _I_ was Seeker?"

"Nope," George answered, "we went years without a Seeker at all, then Harry started in his first year but missed the last match because he was injured and in his second year the season got cancelled."

"You should see Andrew on a broom!" Jax spoke up. "He and Harry would put Lynch to shame!"

"Stop, Jax!" Andrew complained. "You're making me blush!"

"He's right though, the way you saved that shot from Ravenclaw by diving _through_ the goalhoop!" Mel giggled.

"They'll let you get away with that at school, but professionally, that's Flacking," James explained. "But then again, Flacking is when the _Keeper_ defends the goals from behind the hoops. Not sure if it applies to a Chaser."

"How did you know he was a Chaser?" Ron asked.

"Just a guess." James shrugged.

"I'm sure if Jax ever tried out for the Slytherin team he'd give me a run for my money." Andrew countered.

"I might just look into that," Jax said with a grin.

Hermione decided to try and change the subject before Andrew and Jax started again.

"So, Andrew, you said that Tony Stark helped you finish your car," she said, Andrew nodded. "How did he do it? What else did you work on together?" she eyed the glove on his right hand and Andrew wondered if she suspected something.

"Well, he used his own electronic butler Jarvis as a template and created a whole new AI for Katt." Andrew answered, hoping to avoid the other question.

"Is that all he worked on?" Harry asked.

"Well, there's this game that's been going around the Temple lately, based on that new TV show and the Nintendo game of the same name." Andrew answered, hoping that this would be enough. "The show's called Pokémon, and the Order developed it into some of our hologram tech, it's gone through the Order like wildfire!"

"He made some magic-resistant tech so we can play when we go back to school, I'll show you how it works sometime." Mel added.

"Other than that he just helped upgrade our shuttle-car fleet," Jax finished. "Fitting them all with Arc Reactors."

Arthur was looking around the stadium and announced that it looked empty enough, so they all got up and started filing out of the box.

Fred and George were having a hard time getting down the many flights of stairs, given all their winnings from Bagman as they had called the match perfectly. "I still don't know how you did that!" Andrew complained. "I get premonitions of the future and I _still_ didn't see it coming!"

The twins just grinned at the Padawan as the large group made their way down the purple-carpeted steps. "Just don't tell your mother you've been gambling," their father begged.

"Don't worry, Dad," Fred answered with a huge grin, "we've got big plans for the money, we don't want it confiscated." Arthur looked for a moment like he was going to ask what they were, but decided that he didn't want to know.

Even with hanging around upstairs, there was still a bit of a crowd when they reached the ground. After queuing for a short while, they were outside, watching as leprechauns flew over the singing crowds, waving their lanterns. When they got back to the tents, Kain and the others already lounging outside, they agreed that it was too noisy to try and sleep just yet, so they enjoyed a cup of cocoa inside James' tent and went back to debating the match.

"Ended up a bit of a dirty game in the end," Sirius commented.

"I read in 'Quidditch Through the Ages' that there's a long list of fouls, but I think that's the first time I've seen any in action." Mel added.

"You're forgetting the final between Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Jax laughed. "First time I saw a Beater 'mistake' a Chaser's head for a Bludger!"

"Not to mention how the other Beater was caught Blagging Harry's broom." Andrew added. " _Man_ that game was dirty, and hard to watch."

"Were you injured?" Lily asked softly.

"No, our team had eight players," Harry answered. "Oliver wanted Andrew to play Chaser again, but Andrew stubbornly told him he was taking the bench, what was it you said again?" Harry looked to Andrew.

The Padawan shrugged. "I told him that you guys were the team that should've won it during our first year, and that I was stepping aside to let you guys do it. No different to how I refused to take Oliver's position as Keeper at any time during the season."

"Can you play every position or something?" Charlie laughed.

"Yes," Andrew told him simply, just then, Ginny passed out on the table, knocking her cup to the floor. Andrew's right hand shot out and caught the cup before it smashed, spilling hot cocoa all over his tight glove. The Jedi panicked a little when he didn't even flinch.

"Time for bed I think!" James announced, distracting everyone while Lily moved to tend to Andrew's 'burns'.

"Yes, it's about that time," Arthur agreed. "I don't envy those on duty tonight."

"I agree, the poor blighter's who have to tell the Irish to stop celebrating!" Sirius nodded.

Mr Weasley took his sons and headed over to his own tent, Lily offered to carry Ginny over to the girl's tent and then came back. Harry was supposed to be staying with the Weasley boys but everyone understood when he decided to stay with his parents.

Lily, James, Sirius and Harry stayed in the newest tent while the three Jedi headed next door with Kain and company. They all sat around the table, Andrew deciding that he needed to talk about a few things before any of them slept.

"So, you two finally getting together?" Andrew asked his childhood friends, Mel blushed hard and apologised to Jax for her slip of the tongue.

"You're not gonna squeal on us, are you bro?" Jax asked, Andrew smiled fondly.

"Never, but I would _strongly_ suggest that you go to the council, the worst thing for you two is if a Master had been here tonight, y'know?"

"You're right, I promise we'll see the council before we go back to school." Mel vowed.

Smiling at her and patting her hand, Andrew then rounded on Raziel. "You and I need to talk mister!"

Raziel looked confused as hell. "What could I have done? I'm no babysitter!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about Selena!" Andrew snapped.

"What of her?" Raziel asked. "I've noticed her following me around a lot recently, but she's naught but an infatuated child, my friend."

"Wait, have I missed something?" Jax asked, also looking confused.

"I only found out about it the day you guys left," Andrew answered, pointing out he'd woken up mere hours after they'd taken off for the campsite.

"Found out what?" Mel asked.

"Little twelve-year-old Selena Hill has a crush on two-time dead Raziel!" Andrew exploded. "And I need you to give me your word of honour, Raz, that there's nothing going on."

"Truthfully, my friend." Raziel started. "She has tried, many times, to show her affection towards me, in ways beyond her years. But each time I have stopped her, the most I have allowed her is to hug my side and I have reciprocated by wrapping an arm around her shoulders and nothing more."

"And that's not going to change at all?" Andrew pressed.

"I cannot promise that," Raziel admitted. "I can see her blossoming into a beautiful woman when she comes of age, and I myself am ageless. Not only that, I am _clearly_ more patient than she is."

Andrew sighed in mild relief. "Well so long as you don't plan on doing anything until she's old enough, I know I can trust you."

With that little drama over and done with, everyone except Kain and Raziel decided to turn in for the night.

They maybe slept for an hour before the two undead creatures were waking them all up. "Something is happening out there!" Kain shouted, his hand twitching towards his sword.

There was definitely a change outside, the singing had been replaced with screams and people were running frantically between their four tents and into the woods. The three Jedi and five band members dived out of their tent, all of them armed, just as the other three tents emptied out.

Andrew and Jax glared in the direction that people were running from, seeing a large group of people wearing hooded robes and masks, blasting tents out of the way and yelling drunkenly. What made the boys growl with anger was the sight of the campsite owner and his family suspended at least fifteen feet in the air.

Mrs Roberts was flipped upside-down in the air, her nightdress falling away from her ankles to reveal her underwear. "Sick fuckers!" Jax growled. Just then Harry was pushed over to them by his parents, both of which had a wand in their hands.

"Oh no you don't!" Andrew ordered. "I still might go to Azkaban for rescuing you two, I'm not letting you get killed tonight!"

Lily looked ready to object, but the Padawan cut her off. "No Lily! You two stay with Harry, Mel, take them, Hermione, Ginny, Ron and the twins and keep them together! Kain, you and the others stay here, you're the last line of defence!"

"And what are you two going to do!" Percy demanded.

"Rescue those Muggles," Andrew answered. "Jax? Don't kill any of them, I'd rather see them rot in Azkaban!"

"Hey, you know me, I don't kill without orders!" Jax complained, reading his lightsaber.

"Sorry, conflicting memories again." Andrew apologised.

"Just be careful you two," Mel begged.

"Always!" Jax flashed her a grin.

"Seriously you two, be careful, I doubt you've ever had to deal with Death Eaters!" Sirius snapped.

"You can trust us!" Andrew said with a thick Russian accent.

"да," Jax added, with a similar accent. "Ve're professional!" he declared as the two of them ignited their lightsabers and dashed off so fast they blurred slightly.

Andrew pulled off his glove using the Force and activated his repulsor, using it to go airborne over the collection of hooded people. "WRECKING BALL!" he bellowed as he fired a Force push into the ground, sending some of the Death Eaters into the air. He sprang to his feet and threw out his right fist, punching the man holding Mrs Roberts in the air, so hard that his cheekbone broke and he flew ten feet into another hooded figure.

Not far behind him, Jax landed and threw his saber into the shoulder of a hooded woman who screamed in pain. Mrs Roberts fell screaming from the sky, where Andrew caught her with his metal arm. "Don't panic!" he bellowed at her, flinging her bodily over the heads of her assailants where a Ministry wizard caught her and took her to safety.

Jax caught Mrs Roberts' son as he fell to the ground and drop kicked the Death Eater holding the boy's sister in the air, causing her to fall as well. The two Jedi kept the children between them, as the Death Eaters around them realised what was happening and turned to attack them. The two boys became so busy trying to deflect curses that they had to leave Mr Roberts in the air so they could protect his children.

 **Woods**

"What's a Death Eater?" Harry asked as he, his classmates and the twins were dragged by Mel and his parents into the woods.

"Voldemort's followers!" James told him, watching with worry as Arthur, Sirius, Bill, Charlie and Percy all charged after the Jedi. They all turned and watched as a blue and red lightsaber flew into the air and came crashing back down, causing several Death Eaters to be thrown into the air.

"Probably all drunk," Lily growled. "And _this_ is their way of celebrating!"

"I'm ashamed to admit that my father's one of them," said a miserable voice, they rounded a tree to see Draco standing there.

"Can't say I'm shocked," Ron spat. "How come he's not making you join in?"

"You kidding?" Draco demanded. "I ran out of the tent the moment he opened the first bottle of Firewhiskey!"

"Smart move," James commented, having no idea who this kid was.

"I'd keep moving if I were you," Draco told them, a pleading look in his eye. "They know a Muggle-born when they see one and I'd hate to see what they'll do to you."

"We can't leave you by yourself," Lily insisted. "Stay with us, so you'll be safe too."

Just as Draco accepted the offer, Harry cried out that he'd lost his wand, so everyone around him lit their wands so he could look for it, Mel going one further and igniting her lightsabers. "You've got yours right Harry?"

"Dammit!" he cried. "I don't, it's at The Burrow!"

Mel sighed. "Practise makes perfect, alright everyone stay close together, lets get away from the camp for now." everyone agreed and started moving deeper into the woods.

At the edge of the woods, Kain and company were directing people to run by them. "Come on, this way!" Sly yelled, pulling one woman passed him and then swinging his cane up at the Death Eater who was chasing her. He caught the man squarely under the jaw and lifted him off his feet, then Sly spun around, wrapping the curve at the top around the Death Eater's neck, and slammed him face first into the dirt, knocking him out cold.

"More coming!" called Ratchet as the crowd cheered, pulling out one of his guns, he pointed and fired out an orange beam. It hit the Death Eater square in the chest and he turned into a clucking chicken.

Kain slashed a third Death Eater across the chest, grabbing his right shoulder in his left hand and pulling his neck up to his mouth, sinking his teeth in violently. While he drank, Raziel plunged his claws into the Death Eater's spine and ripped out his soul, opening his mouth wide, Raziel took in a deep breath and devoured the soul. He summoned his wraith blade and dropped to one knee with his back to Kain. Kain finished draining the Death Eater of blood and threw away the body, holding his sword aloft and declaring, "Vae victis!"

Just as the vampire was about to dive into battle, Jak called him to his senses. "We're supposed to be the last line, remember!" Kain nodded and stopped himself mid-step. "Are there any more civilians coming?" Jak asked, Kain and Raziel shook their heads and Jak started firing his Vulcan Fury, making a 'line in the sand' as it were.

"We kill anything that crosses that line!" Kain ordered.

 **Campsite**

"Jax, let go of your lightsaber!" Andrew shouted, Jax did as his brother-Jedi told him, Andrew did the same and the two lightsabers started spinning on their own, faster and faster. "Now grab those kids and get ready to run!"

Jax nodded, crouching low and picking up a child under each arm, he could distinctly hear a growing whine as the repulsor in Andrew palm began charging up. The whine grew higher and higher in pitch, louder and louder, until Andrew flung his right arm out to the side and let off an almighty blast, blowing around twenty Death Eaters off their feet. Jax took his queue and ran for it, quickly being picked up by a Ministry wizard and who relieved him of his charges.

Meanwhile, Andrew grabbed the two lightsabers from the air and charged the last Death Eater with a hostage, he threw Jax's saber at the man's leg, impaling his thigh and dropping him to one knee, then he leapt at the man, giving him a right hook across the face, then he twisted his metallic arm around the man's neck and bent him over backwards. Finally the Padawan pulled Jax's saber from his leg, holding both weapons in his left hand, and hoisted the man onto his right shoulder before throwing him violently into the crowd of Death Eaters, just in time to catch Mr Roberts before he hit the ground.

As he put the man down on his feet, Jax was back, Andrew tossed him his lightsaber and the duo returned to their previous task of deflecting curses and protecting a hostage. "Well, this is fun!" Jax yelled sarcastically.

"You're telling me?" Andrew shouted back over the sound of hundreds of curses flying. He used his right arm to block three different curses and then a massive triangular shield extended from the back of his hand, blocking more incoming shots. He advanced on the Death Eaters, using his shield for cover, before retracting the shield and firing off a repulsor in a Death Eater's face, the recoil driving his elbow into the face of another masked assailant. He leapt forward and punched another in the gut before opening his hand and sending him flying with another repulsor blast.

Jax meanwhile had started to play his favourite game, 'which Force power shall I try next?', he slashed one Death Eater on his left across the chest, then as he slashed his blade to the right, he sent a jolt of lightning through his weapon, leaving another Death Eater quivering from the electrical shock. He spun around, twirling his weapon behind his back and cutting up a third Death Eater, then finally he charged up a massive blast of lightning and slammed his weapon at the ground, sending out a wall of lightning, catching fifteen hooded figures at once.

Suddenly, _everyone_ around them screamed, even the Death Eaters. In the sky above the woods, a giant green-tinged skull had appeared, it opened its great mouth and a serpent slivered out like some grotesque tongue.

The two Jedi were left alone in the middle of the field of grass, torn tents and fires as every Death Eater Disapparated and every Ministry wizard either did the same or started running towards the woods.

"What the hell?" Jax asked.

"No idea, but we better find out what's going on," Andrew answered, reaching into his pocket for his glove. "Shit! My glove's gone!"

"Then we find it, let the Ministry handle," Jax nodded in the direction of the skull, "that. We don't even know what the hell it is!"

 **Woods**

"Holy _Hell_!" James cried as he looked up at the sky, everyone pointed their wands in the direction they heard the incantation coming from. There was a series of pops and Harry yelled out to duck.

Mel leapt in front of the others and exercised her skills in defensive Jar'Kai to defend from dozens of stunning spells, deflecting a few back to knock out the hoard of Ministry wizards who had Apparated to the clearing they were standing in.

"Stop!" yelled Arthur Weasley. "Those are my children! STOP!"

Mel panted a little as the attack came to a grinding halt. "Are all of you alright?" Arthur asked, looking from one face to the next.

"Out of the way Arthur," Mr Crouch ordered, shoving Mr Weasley to one side, his eyes were popping madly. "Which of you did it?" he demanded. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"They're children Barty, how could any of them know how?" Arthur cried, feeling offended that his children were even being accused.

"Then it was one of you two!" Crouch demanded, pointing to Lily and James, the latter of which swinging out and flattening Crouch.

"HOW DARE YOU! AFTER EVERYTHING MY FAMILY HAS GONE THROUGH, YOU THINK WE'D DO SOMETHING SO SICK!" James exploded, having to be held back by Harry, Ron, Fred and George.

That seemed to make Crouch wake up and come to his senses. Rubbing his chin he looked apologetic. "Forgive me James, I, don't know what came over me."

"Where did the Mark come from?" Arthur asked. "Did any of you see?"

"I heard someone shouting," Hermione said, pointing. "Over there." All the wizards still conscious then raised their wands, pointing where Hermione had.

"We'll be too late," said a witch in a woollen dressing gown. "Whoever did it will have Disapparated by now."

"Maybe not," said Amod Diggory, he lowered his wand and squared his shoulders, marching towards the bushes there. "Some of our stunners came this way, plus a few the Padawan deflected over here."

"Careful Amos!" whispered one or two wizards around the clearing. Diggory disappeared into the bush and a few seconds later they heard him shouting out.

"Yes! We got them!" he called, carrying out the unconscious form, of Winky the House Elf. Everyone stared at Crouch as he stood there, transfixed. He seemed to refuse to accept the facts before him and he marched into the bush Winky had come from to see if there was anyone else.

"How could a House Elf cast the Dark Mark?" Lily asked, worried about Winky.

"She couldn't," Arthur answered, trying to get Amos to see sense. "It's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"She _had_ a wand," Amos shot back, getting stunned silence in return. "Here, look." he held up a wand and showed it to Mr Weasley. "Had it in her hand. So that's clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken for a start. 'No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand.'" he recited.

Bagman Apparated into the clearing as Crouch came back empty handed and Mr Diggory revived the House Elf. Diggory told her the facts as he saw them and demanded that she explain. "I-I-I is not doing it, sir!" she squeaked. "I is not knowing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" barked Diggory, waving it in front of her, causing Harry to recognise it.

"Wait, that's mine!" he half-shouted.

"I beg your pardon?" Mr Diggory said, incredulous.

"I noticed it was missing after we ran into the woods!" Harry told them.

"So you conjured the Dark Mark!" Diggory barked.

"I beg your pardon!" James boomed. "You wanna rethink that Amos?"

Diggory seemed to realise just who he had accused and apologised, turning back on Winky. "So you stole this wand, Elf!"

"Actually Amos," Lily started. "We came across Winky, _after_ Harry discovered his wand was missing. She was struggling to run away from the camp. Probably disobeying orders and fighting her own nature." she added.

"So she found the wand," Diggory said, rounding back on the Elf again as she cowered at his feet. "And you picked it up and thought you'd have a little fun with it, did you?"

"I is not doing magic with it, sir!" Winky squealed, tears flowing like a river down her face. I is … I is … I is just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!"

"It wasn't her anyway!" Mel spoke up, stepping forward to gently pull the Elf to her feet and stand between her and Diggory protectively. "She's got a tiny feminine voice and is barely half a foot tall! Whoever cast the spell was a man in his early thirties, standing at six foot, exact!"

"How could you possibly know _that_!" Crouch demanded, speaking for the first time since Winky was pulled from the bushes.

"I'm a trained profiler for the Order, sir," Mel said curtly. "Part of the job is being able to describe a suspect in a split second and that's exactly what I have done. Besides, we don't even know that Harry's wand was the one to cast the Dark Mark!"

"Well, we'll soon see," growled Mr Diggory, looking unimpressed. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed." he raised his own wand and placed it tip to tip with Harry's. "Prior Incantato!" he roared.

Hermione gasped in horror as a much smaller version of the Dark Mark erupted from where the two wands met, except it looked to be made of grey smoke, not green clouds. "Deletrius!" Diggory shouted, causing the smokey Dark Mark to vanish. "So," he said with savage triumph.

"I is not doing it!" Winky squealed, Mel dropped to one knee and held the Elf tenderly, trying to calm her down, but Winky still screamed, "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how!" in terror.

"Just leave her alone you bullying bastard!" Mel yelled at Diggory, shocking everyone with her language.

"She's only an Elf, girl!" Diggory told her threateningly, only to have the hilt of one of her lightsabers pointing his way.

"I don't care, I've seen enough cruelty to magical creatures in the last six months to last me a lifetime and if I have to take you down to protect this poor creature, I WILL!" she ignited the blade to prove her point.

"She's been caught red-handed!" Diggory roared, pointing his and Harry's wands at Mel. "Caught with the guilty wand in her hand!"

Mr Weasley tried to calm the situation by stepping in between the two. "Amos, think about it … precious few _wizards_ know how to cast that spell … where would _she_ have learnt it?"

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting," said Crouch in a dangerous voice, seething with rage. "That I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

Nobody said anything for several moments, until Diggory timidly attempted to back-peddle again. "You have now come _very_ close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are _least_ likely to conjure that Mark!" Crouch roared. "Harry Potter, and myself!"

"So says the man who accused me and my wife?" asked James, scathingly, to which Crouch apologised.

"Mr Crouch," Diggory started, "I-I never suggested that you have anything to do with it!"

"You accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!" Crouch roared. "Where else would she have learnt to conjure it?"

"She – she might've picked it up anywhere.." Diggory said, scratching the back of her head.

"Precisely, Amos," said Mr Weasley, still being diplomatic. "'She might have picked it up anywhere' … Winky?" he said kindly, turning to Mel as Winky flinched behind her leg, Mel lowered her humming blade, still scowling. "Where exactly did you find Harry's wand?"

Winky twisted the hem of her toga, a tea towel, so violently that it started to fray. She briefly darted her massive brown eyes to Crouch before pointing to where she was found. "I – I is finding it … finding it there, sir … there … in the trees, sir ..." she said in a terrified whisper.

"You see, Amos?" Mr Weasley said brightly. "Whoever conjured the Mark must have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind."

"Smart move," growled Mel. "Leave the evidence for someone else to pick up and take the blame, of course it helps if there's someone around, who's eager to point fingers!" she snapped, glaring daggers at Mr Diggory.

"You're right, you're right!" Diggory said, holding his hands up in surrender and bowing his head apologetically. "But then, she'd have been a mere few feet away from the real Culprit!" he cried, brightening up. "Did you see anyone, Elf?"

"She has a _name_ you know, Jackass!" Mel snapped, losing her patience now. Winky flinched from Mel's outburst but shakily told everyone that she saw no one.

"Amos," Mr Crouch said curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning.."

"Over my dead body he will!" Mel declared, raising her lightsaber again, Crouch nodded to her politely.

"I thank you for being so protective of my servant, Padawan, however, I ask everyone here to allow me to deal with her." Crouch finished. Diggory didn't look too happy with the request, but Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he could not be refused. "You may rest assured that she will be punished," Crouch added coldly, causing Mel to turn her glare on him instead.

"For _what_?" Mel exploded. "Being scared of the same thing _everyone_ was afraid of?!"

"I gave her an order to stay in my tent, and she disobeyed me," Crouch said, slowly, clearly and without pity. "This means _clothes_."

Winky darted from around Mel's legs to scream for mercy from her master while Hermione tried to plead the elf's case, Crouch refused to change his mind and Mr Weasley suggested that he take his family, the Potters, Hermione, Draco and Mel back to camp.

Diggory returned Harry's wand and they all left. "I'm sorry I lost my temper with that Diggory guy, I hate seeing someone being treated as a lesser being, just because they're not human." Mel said.

"You see it a lot in the Order?" Ron asked.

"I've had my share of breaking up bear-baiting crowds." she answered, causing Hermione to shudder.

"Daddy," Ginny started, "why was everyone so uptight about that skull?"

"I'll explain everything back at the tents," her father answered tensely. As they got to the edge of the woods, they found everyone who had been hiding from the Death Eaters waiting for any news. Arthur simply told them that whoever conjured the Mark had Disapparated and asked to be allowed through so he could get his children to bed.

"Where's Andrew and Jax?" Mel asked, looking around the field of smoking tents, not seeing anyone.

"They came back here after the Death Eaters Disapparated," Charlie answered, pointing into the Weasley boys tent.

Once inside, they found Andrew adjusting the glove on his right hand and Jax sewing up a cut on Bill's arm. "Thanks for this Jax," Bill muttered.

"No problem, I'm used to being a field medic, sewing someone other than myself makes a nice change." Jax told him as he finished closing the wound.

"Did you get them Dad?" Bill asked, noticing the others walk in. "The one who conjured the Mark?"

They told the story of what happened in the clearing, how Winky had been found under the Mark with Harry's wand, but were none the wiser about who'd done it. Then Hermione and Mel voiced their outrage about the way Winky was mistreated and it sparked an argument between them and Percy.

Ron of all people stopped the argument by demanding what the Mark really was.

"It's was Voldemort's calling card!" Sirius growled, ignoring it when all the Weasley's and Draco flinched.

"I've no doubt that it would've been over our house if Harry had died that night too." James added.

"It hasn't been seen for thirteen years, it's no wonder people panicked," Arthur added. "It was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."

"I don't get it," Ron said, frowning. "I mean … it's still only a shape in the sky..."

"Ron, Padfoot told you," James said, almost snapping. He sighed before he continued. "I'm sorry, it's just … it's been thirteen years for all of you, it was two months ago for me and Lily. It's still fresh."

"Volde.. You-Know-Who and his followers would send up the Dark Mark, every time they killed," Lily explained. "It grew to inspire terror, just imagine coming home one day to find that Mark in the sky over your home."

There was a collective shudder among all of them, Mr Weasley more than the rest. He had the largest family to lose.

Draco chose that moment to remind everyone that he was there. "I suppose I'd better go and see if my parents have made it back to the tent yet."

"You sure you'd rather not stay here for the night?" Andrew suggested. "If they _were_ in amongst the Death Eaters..."

"They probably needed to go to St Mungo's after what you two did to them!" Charlie cut the Jedi off with a chuckle.

"You make us sound like such thugs!" Jax complained. "We're just more kickass than they are!"

"One thing I don't get is," Andrew started. "If that skull is ol' Moldyshort's calling card, why did the Death Eaters scarper?"

"And what _is_ a Death Eater?" Harry asked, remembering what his father had said before the Jedi ran off to help the Roberts family.

"Well, a Death Eater," Bill started, "was what one of You-Know-Who's followers called themselves."

"And as for why they ran, it was Wormtail all over again." Sirius finished. "I guarantee, every one of those ones out here tonight was one who'd said and done anything they could to keep out of Azkaban."

"There were those who stayed active after You-Know-Who's downfall, doing whatever they could to bring him back." Mr Weasley explained. "They were eventually caught and locked up. But many more claimed to have been threatened or bewitched into serving him and were allowed to go free. More _still_ who simply went into hiding."

"We probably saw every last one of them tonight," James growled.

"Not that we can prove that," Lily sighed.

"Well, we didn't kill any of them, so we got a few arrests," Andrew said hopefully.

"Correction, there were three killed," Percy pointed out. "One with a crushed neck, one turned into a chicken and got trampled and the third drained of blood and his soul ripped out."

"Should've told told _them_ not to kill anyone, Andrew." Jax said, simply.

"Hang on, who turned one of them into a chicken?" Andrew demanded.

"Eyewitnesses say it was … Ratchet?" Bill said, unsure of the name.

"Oh," Andrew clicked his fingers. "Morph-o-Ray!"

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione asked.

"It's a weapon in Ratchet's arsenal, turns his enemies into chickens." Mel explained.

"Fascinating as all of this is," Draco interrupted, looking apologetic. "I really should get going."

"I don't like the idea of letting you go alone," Lily said. "Why don't I come with you?"

"I appreciate it, Mrs Potter," Draco said, waving off her offer. "But I can't risk my father.." he stopped himself. "I promise if they're not there or the tent's been damaged in the riot, I'll come right back."

"I'll go with him, make sure he gets to the flap safe," Sirius offered. "Lucius shouldn't cause me any trouble, he married my cousin Narcissa."

"I thought your name was familiar," Draco said with a little surprise. "Sirius is right, father might hate his guts but he wouldn't try to harm him, unless he tried to steal his wife."

"Oh, don't make me sick!" Sirius groaned. "I may have spent thirteen years in prison but I'm not _that_ desperate for a woman!" he joked and the two of them left.

"So why were Voldemort's supporters.." Harry started, pausing when everyone but the Jedi, Hermione and his parents flinched again. "Sorry.. what were they doing levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"

Mr Weasley and Harry's parents let out identically hollow laughs. "That's just a taste of their sick idea of fun," James answered darkly. "Just be thankful Harry, that that's _all_ they decided to do to that poor family."

"Don't ask," Lily said as Harry opened his mouth. "You're too young to know the answer, darling." she pulled him into a hug, at fourteen, Harry was nearly as tall as her shoulder already.

"But if they _were_ the Death Eaters, why run at the Dark Mark?" Ron asked. "You'd think they'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Think about it Ron, you're Mouldyshorts, you've had to hide for thirteen years, and I'm one of the people who's begged, lied, bribed and cheated my way into convincing people and I never had anything to do with you and I'll never want to." Andrew told him. "Would you be overly pleased to see me again?"

"Okay, fair point." Ron said, nodding thoughtfully.

"So … whoever conjured the Dark Mark ..." Hermione said slowly, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"That second one is interesting," Jax said, drumming his fingers on the sink. "Maybe someone knew that the Death Eaters would run for it and cast it on purpose to save the Roberts family."

"Believe me, Jax," James said darkly. "If that's the case, we're either talking about a very sick individual, or a very stupid one."

"All we can do right now is guess," Lily said, holding James' hand. "There's no point in losing sleep over it."

"I agree, Lily, let's get a few more hours sleep and take an early Portkey home." Mr Weasley said.

"Why bother?" Andrew asked. "In Shuttle mode, our cars can carry up to ten people, twenty if a few stay standing up."

"Yeah, we can pack up the tents and give you a lift on our way home." Jax added.

"Don't you already have the band to take back?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, admittedly there's twenty one of us in total," Andrew agreed. "But you forget, we've got two vehicles, and I'll be taking four or five of us in Katt."

"Where's your other vehicle?" Charlie asked, confused.

"What?" Mel asked. "You think me, Jax and the others _walked_ from London?" she pointed at Jax's wrist, as he revealed an identical watch to Andrew's.

"Alright then, off to bed everyone," Mr Weasley ordered gently. "Harry, I assume you'll want to travel with your parents."

Harry nodded and Hermione and Ginny pointed out that they didn't want to be alone at that moment, so James and Lily invited them into their tent, saying they had a spare room.

It took all of them a while, but with the knowledge that Kain and Raziel had volunteered to stand watch outside their tents, they managed to get a few more hours of sleep.

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, remember, drop a review, thanks.**


	4. Disaster in London

**Disclaimer: I own everything! Happy April Fools day everyone!**

 **Hello again, be prepared for my longest chapter yet (I think), hope you enjoy it, and please review. I see all of you adding me to your favourites and alerts, but I don't know what you think other than the fact that you're enjoying it enough to keep reading.**

 **That being said, read and enjoy.**

Chapter 4 – Disaster in London

As Harry woke up, he heard a couple of loud calls from outside, he heaved himself out of his bed and left his room, Ginny was just shuffling out of the spare room, rubbing her tired eyes as James drank a coffee.

"Andrew and Jax are just helping to pack away the other tents while everyone gets dressed in ours," Lily explained, she was busy making toast and jam to wake everyone up a bit.

Andrew poked his head in as Ron, his brothers and father came out of James' room fully dressed. "Mr Weasley, your tents are packed up and we're just pulling down ours, we'll be ready to load up and take off in five!" Andrew called as his head vanished.

"They move fast," Hermione commented as she stepped out of the spare bedroom, fully dressed and as bright as ever.

James grumbled something about 'morning people' and Lily giggled as everyone sat down to eat their snack. All heads snapped in the direction of the tent flap as the sound of jet engines roaring to life met their ears.

"ALL ABOOOOAAARRD!" Jax called from outside. Hermione and the Weasleys took their toast and stepped outside, watching as Kain and company stepped into the shuttle. They chose to stay standing and left the seats for everyone else, holding tightly to hand rails.

Once everyone was seated and belted in, Andrew, Jax and Mel worked on James' tent. Once it was packed away, Jax and Mel moved to get aboard their shuttle.

"Try to keep her level during take-off and landing," Andrew suggested. "You don't wanna annoy anyone by making them fall over."

"Noted, not that you need to tell me how to fly, Bro, I might not be as good as you but I'm no idiot." Jax said with a playful shove.

"Do you _really_ want me to answer that?" Andrew smirked.

"Enough boys, let's get going!" Mel ordered and they split off.

"Katt, normal mode." Andrew told his watch.

Sirius loaded the tent into the boot and then got into the passenger seat, turning and smiling at Harry as he sat contentedly between his parents.

"See you back at the temple!" Andrew called as he lent out of the window, then he drove off to give the shuttle room to fire its landing thrusters for a vertical take-off.

"Merry Christmas!" Mr Roberts cried as Andrew drove out of the gate.

"Poor man," Sirius commented as he waved back to the Muggle. "Not surprised he's like that after what he had to forget from last night."

"Made the right call last night," Andrew commented as he pipped his horn a couple of times. There was a large queue of people trying to get Portkeys so they could leave as soon as possible. The crowd didn't seem to hear the horn, so Andrew pressed it harder and made several nervous individuals jump a mile out of their skins.

They soon parted to let the Jedi drive through and then they were on their way. "So, Harry," Andrew started, breaking the silence as they joined the main roads. "Aside from last night's fiasco, did you enjoy yourself?"

"How could I not?" Harry chuckled. "Best Quidditch match of my life and my parents are alive again, I don't think I ever thanked you."

Andrew smiled to his friend in the rear-view mirror. "And you'll never have to." the Padawan said softly.

"Well, anyway, thank you." Harry said, his smile widening as James wrapped an arm around his son.

"So, what's music like these days?" Lily asked, realising that she'd not listened to a radio since being rescued.

"Katt?" Andrew called, her holographic head appeared above the dashboard. "Don't bother with a radio station, just play us something in the charts."

"Sure thing, Dad." Katt answered. Andrew's eyes narrowed as 'Love Is All Around' by Wet Wet Wet came through the speakers.

"I _hate_ this song!" he growled, trying to tune out the song as he kept driving. Sirius just started laughing and James was singing along with the chorus as soon as he picked up on the lyrics. He was crooning to Lily from over Harry's head and Harry was left feeling ever-so-slightly uncomfortable.

They kept driving until Andrew pulled into the same service station he'd used on his way down from London.

"All ashore what's going ashore!" Andrew ordered, stepping out of the vehicle and pulling his seat forward for Lily to get out. James and Harry went to use the public toilets and the others went into the shop for a drink.

Sirius was making coffees for himself and James and Lily was getting colas from the fridge for her, Harry and Andrew, while Andrew was glancing through books. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he turned to look at the collection of newspapers on sale, and what he saw on every front cover made his blood freeze.

He snatched up a copy of 'The Sun' and read the front page in total horror. "Hey, Kid, you gonna buy that or what!" demanded a pimple-faced guy behind the counter to Andrew's left, Andrew snapped his head at the guy, his braid flicking through the air. "Oh shit, you're a Jedi? I'm sorry man."

Andrew snapped out of his stupor. "LILY!" he cried, she ran over to him and saw the story on the front page.

"Go get the car," she urged him, taking the paper as the boy tore out of the shop. "Sirius, give me those, I'll pay for everything, get Harry and James, _fast_!"

Noting her tone of voice, Sirius just nodded and ran to the gents. Lily paid for everything quickly and hurried out of the service station building as Andrew screeched to a stop right in front of her, she passed the Jedi the two coffees and got into her spot from the passenger side, just getting her belt on as the boys came out.

"GET IN!" Andrew screamed as they took too long for his liking right now, Harry clambered in, followed by James and Sirius. Andrew impatiently waited for Sirius to get his belt on before shoving the coffee on the eldest passenger, the tyres screamed in protest as Andrew slammed his foot down and didn't even get out of the parking lot before going airborne.

"What the hell's going on?" James demanded, feeling a little scared from Andrew's change in demeanour.

"Here," Lily said, passing the paper to her husband. He saw the headline and started to read out loud

 _Inferno at the Jedi Temple!_

 _Police, fire, ambulance and even International Rescue are currently in attendance at a blazing inferno at the general headquarters of the Jedi Order. At this time it is uncertain as to the cause of the blaze and there are still members of the Order who are unaccounted for._

 _With dozens of fire trucks on the scene and even the amazing equipment of International Rescue, the flames are still out of control._

 _Full story, page 5._

The small box of writing was accompanied by a large picture of the front of the London Temple with flames billowing out of the entrance archway. Before James could turn to page five to read on, Andrew ordered Katt to turn on the radio and tune into a news station.

" _We can now go to our reporter on the scene, with further details. What can you tell us John?_ "

" _At this time, London Fire and Rescue services have carried no less than thirteen bodies out of the building, sadly six were declared dead on the scene and the other seven have been rushed to hospital with third-degree burns and severe smoke inhalation. Thankfully we have not received word of anyone expiring at the hospital, so let's hope they're recovering well._ "

" _Is there any word on what started the fire?_ " asked the anchorman.

" _Details are still unconfirmed, but the police at this time are not ruling out arson._ " John answered, causing Lily to gasp in horror.

" _That's quite a serious claim, John, do they have any idea who would want to deliberately set fire to the place?_ "

" _Personally, I have no idea Jim, but whoever it is, is one sick ba-person!_ " John answered, just managing to stop himself from swearing while live. " _With the fire almost out, a few brave members of the London forensics lab have tentatively started their investigation, and they've determined that the fire started in several places at once, all of which being in the living quarters._ "

At this point, Andrew turned off the radio, putting all his efforts into speed.

The rest of their flight was conducted in complete silence, except for Andrew occasionally demanding an estimated time of arrival from Katt. Soon enough they could all see the pillar of smoke rising above London and Andrew waited until he was only a street away before diving into a landing on the crowded street, narrowly avoiding a crash as he switched back to normal mode.

The Padawan dived out of the car and tried to force his way through the police tape, one police officer tried to get in his way and Andrew just punched the man in the face and spring hip threw him out of his path.

Other officers saw this and moved to attempt to arrest Andrew, but Jarod heard Andrew yelling and intervened, apologising to the officer Andrew had assaulted.

"Calm down, Padawan!" Jarod had to yell as Andrew kept trying to break free from his Master and get inside the temple. "There's no one left inside, calm yourself young one, there's nothing more to be done."

Andrew stopped fighting to get inside and fell to his knees breaking down in tears as waves of death and destruction crashed down upon him through the Force. Behind the police tape, Lily looked ready to cry too, after the stress of the previous night, this was just too much.

"How many have died officer?" she asked. The woman sighed and shook her head.

"Six declared dead on the scene and another five have died at the hospital."

"How did this happen, Master!" Andrew mumbled into Jarod's shoulder as he continued to cry, Jarod kneeling next to his Padawan in the road.

"We don't know yet, Andrew, but we'll find out. I promise." The Jedi Master answered soothingly.

"Mel and Jax, they don't know!" Andrew exclaimed, realising that they couldn't have heard. Jarod nodded to Dela who stepped away, pulling out her Holo-com. Andrew noticed her and pulled away from his mentor, wiping his eyes. "Are Jax's parents..."

"They're fine," Jarod said, gently placing a hand on his student's shoulder. "We lost four Younglings, three Padawans, three Knights and … my old Master." he explained sadly. "We think she was trying to organise an evacuation when her robes caught fire."

Andrew, on his knees on the soaked tarmac, shuddered as fresh tears came to his eyes. "Where are the survivors?" he asked.

"Various hotels in the immediate vicinity have offered us free rooms while we work on other options, I'm going to try and contact the other temples in Britain to see if we can stay there until our home is repaired." Jarod answered.

James, Lily, Harry and Sirius had been permitted to duck under the tape now and James muttered something in Jarod's ear, he nodded. "Not a bad suggestion, perhaps we could send the Younglings home to their families as well."

"What?" Harry asked, having not heard his father over the roar of water hoses.

"Not here, Harry," James answered, looking at all the Muggles around them.

"Master Cooper?" enquired a new voice, all heads turned to see a man in his thirties, wearing a blue uniform with a greyish-blue utility belt draped over one shoulder. He had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. "We've done everything we can here, I'm just sorry we couldn't get here any sooner."

Jarod got to his feet and shook hands with the man. "Thank you for everything Scott, we'd have lost a lot more without your help." Scott Tracy, the pilot of Thunderbird One, nodded a little sadly.

"If there's anything more our organisation can do.." he started.

"We won't hesitate to call," Jarod answered, waving over to Scott's brother Virgil as he paused in loading up Thunderbird Two.

Within moments, both craft were firing their thrusters and taking off vertically. "I suppose we should be thankful that we still have the hangar." Quint pointed out as he watched the Thunderbirds taking off. "Some of our craft will be useful during the repairs."

"True, I'm just glad Jaxon wasn't here, I shudder to think.." Drexia stopped to wipe a tear from her eye as her husband held her.

"Now is not the time for this," Jarod stated, trying to be the leader of his temple. "Right now, we need to take stock of the damage, care for those who have survived and begin the repairs to our home."

The other Masters around him nodded and Dela suggested that Andrew take Harry, his parents and Godfather to join Mel and Jax. "I'll stay and help," Andrew offered, thinking that he needed to either remove his magical possessions from his room, or confirm that they had been destroyed.

"I know what you're thinking about Andrew, I'll take care of it, I promise." Drexia said, knowing the same thing had to be done for her son and Mel as well.

"I really don't think I'm in any condition to drive," Andrew pointed out, noticing that his hands were shaking.

"How about I fly?" Harry suggested. "Remember how you gave me a crash course three years ago?"

"You've not piloted since though," Andrew answered, Sirius adding that he knew how to drive and just needed directions. They all agreed that Sirius would drive and Andrew and Katt would give directions, so they got back into Katt and started driving out of London.

 **The Burrow – Moments Before**

Jax had set the engines to silent running as they approached the village of Ottery St Catchpole, it was still far too early in the morning for jets to be flying low and he didn't want to wake anyone up. Thankfully The Burrow was a nice distance away from the village and the landing thrusters would hopefully not wake any of the villagers.

As soon as they had finished landing and Jax shut down the thrusters, there was a pounding on the hull. Mel cautiously opened the hatch to reveal Mrs Weasley, still in her bedroom slippers, her face stricken with worry and a scrunched up newspaper in her hand.

She seemed to do a quick head-count, before looking both relieved and more panicked at the same time.

"Guessing you've heard of the 'fun'," Jax said, snapping her out of her trance. "Don't panic about Harry, he's with Andrew."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Mrs Weasley cried, almost collapsing, if not for her husband enveloping her in his arms. "Thank _goodness_!"

The paper fell from her hand onto the shuttle deck, revealing the front page to hold a twinkling black and white picture of the Dark Mark and the headline ' _SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP_ '.

After an emotional scene, where Mrs Weasley clung to the twins and cried about how the last thing she'd said to them was that they hadn't gotten enough O. for her liking, Bill picked up the paper and they all moved into the house, Kain and company opting to stay behind and man the shuttle.

Inside the kitchen, Mr Weasley started skimming through the paper, grumbling out some snippets and pointing out that it was written by Rita Skeeter. This caused Percy to complain about one of the stories she had printed and Bill yawned and told his younger brother to shut up.

"Oh, I'm mentioned," Arthur pointed out. "Not by name.." he read out the passage where he had come out of the woods and told the crowd that nobody had been hurt and the culprit had escaped. "Honestly, 'rumours of bodies removed from the woods'? There _will_ be rumours now that she's printed _that_!"

"Hang on, Jax?" Charlie started, noticing a picture on the back page. "Isn't that you and Andrew?"

Arthur turned to the picture in question and started to read another story.

 _Heroes at the World Cup_

 _While Ministry officials struggled to force their way passed hoards of Death Eaters last night, two fourteen-year-old boys, literally, leapt valiantly to the aid of four captive Muggles who were being levitated and tormented by the drunken criminals._

 _This reporter would like to publicly and personally thank those brave children, believed to be members of the Jedi Order, for their assistance in rescuing the captive Muggles and for their part in the apprehension of no less than twenty of You-Know-Who's followers, all of which have been sent directly to Azkaban without trial._

"Fairly short story for something so kickass!" Fred cheered, watching as Jax shot a wave of lightning from his saber into a large group of Death Eaters.

"Because it wasn't written by Skeeter!" Percy grumbled. "She always gets the front page because she writes the most scandalous trash!"

"If I had seen any of that I might not have worried so much," Molly whimpered, tears in her eyes. Arthur insisted that she sit down and try to calm down, Hermione made her a cup of tea and Bill poured a shot of something extra into it to help her nerves.

"I'd best head into work," Mr Weasley finally said with a sigh, Percy agreed and ran off to shower, dress and grab his report for his boss.

"We'd probably best head back to London," Jax spoke up, just as Mel's Holo-com started bleeping, she pulled it out of her pocket and switched it on, revealing the face of her Master.

"Good morning, Master, apologies for being late back, there was a touch of drama last night and we offered the Weasleys a lift home." Mel explained.

"Very well, Padawan," Dela said loudly with a sigh, it was then that everyone noticed the sound of roaring water and sirens. " _I assume that you're at their home, good, stay there until further notice_!"

"Master?" Mel asked, growing worried. "What's happened?"

" _There was a fire in the living quarters yesterday, shortly after Andrew left for the World Cup_ ," Dela explained, there were collective gasps around the kitchen and Mel sank into the chair that Molly just vacated for her. " _We've suffered a few casualties, but I didn't think to tell you until Andrew landed and started causing a scene. He was trying to get inside and help._ " Her hologram looked over her shoulder, glancing sadly at something the Holo-com couldn't see.

"They're welcome to stay here for now Dela, it's no trouble," Arthur called to the hologram.

" _Thank you Arthur, would it be too much trouble if we sent Andrew over to you as well?_ " she asked.

"Not at all," Molly answered, rubbing Jax's shoulder as he stood quietly.

He shook himself and gently took Mel's Holo-com from her. "Master, are my parents..." he couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence.

" _They are fine, Jaxon, the only Master we lost was Master Lanell,_ " Dela explained.

"Oh no, how is Master Cooper taking it?" Mel asked.

" _As well as can be expected,_ " Dela answered. " _I need to get going, there is much to..._ " she was interrupted by the sound of extremely loud engines roaring to life and she turned, revealing a hologram of Thunderbird One taking off. The feed was soon cut and the Holo-com shut down.

Molly set about making breakfast for everyone, Jax pointing out that five more were on the way, but refusing to say who. Arthur had a shower himself, arriving back in the kitchen in a fresh set of robes.

"You're supposed to be on holiday, Arthur," Molly sighed as Percy followed his father into the room.

"This situation is going to need smoothing over, Molly, and I'm partly responsible." Arthur told her with a sigh.

Arthur and Percy stayed long enough to have some more toast and then they were gone. Molly served up some breakfast and got the fright of her life when Kain knocked on the back door.

"What's taking you two so long?" he demanded of Jax and Mel.

"Oh crud, sorry Kain, we totally forgot!" Mel exclaimed, wiping her mouth as she stood up quickly.

"We got some news from home and are staying here until further notice, might be an idea to unpack our tent," Jax explained to the vampire.

"Understood, you can fill me in with the details later." Kain said with a nod as he followed Mel across the garden.

Mel quickly explained what was happening to Kain and the others at the shuttle, all of them showing concern at the news of the fire. Kain and Raziel offered to put their tent together while the others followed Mel back inside for some food.

As Kain and Raziel came in to announce that the tent had been finished, they all heard the roar of a jet engine outside. "It's Andrew," Raziel pointed out, "I think." Everyone gathered at the window as a second shuttle hovered over the lawn, wavering erratically in the sky.

"I don't think Andrew's flying," Mel stated, sounding worried. "He's too good a pilot to struggle with a landing."

Jax looked closer through squinting eyes. "No, it's Sirius … has he ever flown a jet before?"

Everyone agreed that he probably hadn't, but gradually the craft lowered itself to the ground for a not-so-smooth landing.

Molly got a major shock when she saw who stepped out with Harry, instantly recognising his parents and looking to her children for an explanation, nobody spoke as they continued watching. Sirius stepped out next, speaking into the shuttle before he nodded and moved on towards the house. Mel and Jax looked to each other and ran out to speak with their fellow Jedi.

Harry introduced his parents to Molly and the whole story was explained, Andrew and the other Jedi stepping into the kitchen as the story came to an end. Molly pulled Andrew into a hug as he fought not to break down again, she offered him some breakfast and he tried to say he wasn't hungry, but Molly wouldn't hear it and made him at least eat a sausage.

Once he'd finished that one, he found he was ravenous and delved into the rest of what she'd cooked. Bill chose to change the subject by bringing up the story about him and Jax in the paper.

"I don't know who had the guts to grab this picture, but I gotta say, you two in action is one hell of a show!" he said, pointing to the picture.

Jax took the time to take a closer look at the moving image, his blood ran cold as the picture showed Andrew using a charged up repulsor blast to give him the gap to escape with the two Roberts children.

"( _Yeah, I see it too_ ,)" he heard Andrew's voice in his head.

"( _Think the others will notice?_ )" Jax answered, he felt Andrew 'shrug' in his mind. "( _You've not told anyone yet._ )" it wasn't a question, so Andrew didn't answer, Jax guessed why and dropped the subject.

"Wow, you two can _really_ move!" James commentated. "Are you trained as acrobats?"

"Not exactly," Mel answered, letting out a yawn.

"Is anyone up for a game of Quidditch?" Ron asked. "Something to get our minds off last night."

"I'd love to, but there's a good chance that my broom went up in smoke yesterday," Andrew sighed, his mind going to a dark place again.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry mate," Ron mumbled apologetically.

At that moment, Andrew's Holo-com started bleeping, Andrew pulled the device from his pocket and answered the call. "Master Cooper?"

The hologram turned on, revealing Drexia. "MUM!" Jax cried, snatching the device from Andrew's hand. "Are you okay!?"

"Yes, Jax, I'm fine, just glad you weren't here yesterday, are you alright honey? You look tired." she answered.

"Yeah, I'm fine, we had some trouble last night and all of us are kinda sleep deprived," Jax explained, rubbing his eyes.

Drexia's hologram nodded in understanding. "I'll hear the explanation later, for now I need to tell you that I'm sorry, but nothing from the living quarters survived the fire. I'll take care of new clothes for all of you if you can get your measurements to me, but right now I don't know what we'll do about your school things."

"Oh shit," Andrew complained, getting scolded for his language. "Our homework!"

"Well, that's detention until Christmas," Jax growled, trying to make light of the situation.

"I'll take care of their school things Drexy!" James called.

"Are you sure, James?" she asked.

"After everything the Order has done for my family, this is the _least_ I can do." James affirmed.

"Thank you," Mel said, her eyes never leaving Andrew, his eyes had gone slightly glassy.

"Any news on casualties?" he asked, his voice taking on a monotone.

"Well …" Drexia started, pausing as she picked up on Andrew's tone. "… Not exactly an update, more a confirmation."

"Who have we lost?" Jax asked, not liking where this was going.

"Justin Cloudstone." Drexia replied.

"Oh no, little Justin McCloud?" Mel asked, using the boy's nickname, he was a huge fan of the new Highlander series.

"He's not died!" Drexia said quickly. "During the evacuation, he tried to levitate a burning beam to keep it from crushing me. But when I tried to pull him towards me, burning ashes drifted into his eyes."

"OUCH!" blurted out Ron.

"We've confirmed, he's lost all sight in both eyes … both his retinas have been completely burned, he'll never see again." Drexia explained, seeing the tears in Mel's eyes. "We're doing what we can for him, but with the right training, he'll remain in the Order, don't worry."

Andrew let out a sigh. "Thank you for the update Master, do you need us to stay until we return to Hogwarts?"

"Not for that long hopefully, James suggested that we contact Dumbledore, I'll call again when I have an update on that. For now we're thinking of sending all the Younglings home to their families leaving everyone from Padawan and up to stay at Hogwarts while repairs are made to our home." Drexia told them, Jax and Mel wished her luck and she signed off.

"Blimey, the whole of the London Order at school, they'll need a fair few more carriages on the train." George stated plainly.

"You'd be amazed how many of us learn to fly at an early age." Jax answered him.

"Won't be an easy trip though," Andrew pointed out. "Almost every one of them will be a Muggle, so they'll not be able to see the train."

"Dumbledore could give them coordinates?" Mel asked.

"Wards will screw up their readouts, that could be dangerous." Jax answered, seeing Andrew's point. Andrew muttered something under his breath.

"What was that Andrew?" Lily asked kindly.

"I should have been there," he growled, before crashing his right fist down on the table, so hard that it cracked. "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!"

Molly, thinking that Andrew had quite possibly broken his hand, came around the table to tend to it. "I'm fine, Mrs Weasley!" he snapped, snatching his hand away from her and getting angrily off his chair to storm outside, Jax following him.

"What difference would it make if you were there, Bro, you could be dead right now too!" Jax snapped, trying his best to get Andrew angrier so he would vent.

"There's the key word, _could_ , I _could_ be dead right now, Justin _could_ still have the use of his eyes, Master Lanell, _could_ still be alive," he broke down and started to cry. "That woman was like a mother to me!"

"She was like that with all of us, mate," Jax said, placing a hand on Andrew's shoulder. Andrew reacted my lashing out, punching a nearby tree with his right fist and then taking a swing at Jax. Jax bent over backwards so fast and so far it was amazing he didn't snap his spine.

Andrew grabbed Jax by the front of his shirt and hauled him back up, eyes wide and breathing hard. "Jax, I'm sorry.."

"What? Did you hit me or something?" Jax asked with a smirk. Despite himself, Andrew let out a small chuckle. "I know you're hurting, I am too … but there's no point causing yourself more pain with 'what if's', it's pointless."

"You're right," Andrew nodded.

"Of course I'm right … what's new there?" Andrew responded to this by punching Jax's shoulder with his left hand.

They spent the next half hour pitching James' tent and planning their trip to Diagon Alley when the Hogwarts letters arrived, which was a week later.

 _Dear Mr Payne,_

 _Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three quarters, at eleven o'clock._

 _A list of books for next year is enclosed, along with a personal note from the Headmaster._

 _Yours Sincerely,_

 _Professor M. McGonagall,_

 _Deputy Headmistress._

Andrew finished reading his letter out loud and pulled out the list of books.

 _Fourth year students will require:_

 _Dress Robes (only for special occasions this term)._

 _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 4 by Miranda Goshawk._

 _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble._

"What's the note from Dumbledore say?" Ron asked, having found only the two sheets of parchment in his letter.

 _Dear Andrew,_

 _First of all, may I offer my most sincere condolences over the sad loss that you and your fellow Jedi have suffered of late, I can only imagine what you personally are going through, as I know you take much responsibility onto your shoulders._

 _I have attached a note for Gringotts, asking them to grant you access to funds from my own account. This money is to be used to replace the school supplies which you have lost in the fire, including your broomstick._

 _If you should choose to purchase a larger trunk or a faster broomstick, you will need to do pay any extra amount with your own money._

 _I hope that this in some way helps you, and again, my condolences._

 _Albus Dumbledore._

There was yet another sheet of parchment, giving Andrew a list of all his previous school supplies. "Why did he send _this_?" Andrew asked. "He _knows_ I have an eidetic memory!"

"I think that part was a form letter, I've gotten one too," Mel pointed out. "Only difference is that there's no mention of a broom on mine."

"We'll head to Diagon Alley tomorrow," Mrs Weasley said, glancing a little worriedly at the family clock, seeing both Percy and Mr Weasley were still at work with dinner getting cold.

"We'll be happy to take them Molly," Lily offered.

"Thank you Lily dear," Mrs Weasley answered. "But I should go too, a little shopping will help me get off my worries."

Andrew suggested that he and Jax fly everyone to London in the shuttles and James firmly said that he was paying. "Consider it three years worth of Christmas presents, that way I'll be caught up!" he joked.

Mrs Weasley wasn't too keen on the idea, until James joked about the Christmas presents, she agreed to speak with her husband that night, if he got home before she went to bed.

By the next morning, Mr Weasley had come home and talked with James, and it was agreed that James could pay for Ron and Ginny as they were Harry's classmates as well as his friends, and Fred and George would be paid for by their parents. Arthur appreciated the gesture but he felt a strong need to provide for his own family in some measure.

Jax took Mel, Hermione, Mrs Weasley and the twins in his shuttle, while Andrew took Harry, his parents, Sirius, Ron and Ginny. Bill and Charlie offered to stay home and keep Kain and company entertained to save room.

The flight to London was fairly uneventful, they landed vertically outside the smouldering remains of the Temple, mainly because it had the most room, Mel booked out a third vehicle and took Mrs Weasley, Lily, Hermione and Ginny, leaving the other two with few enough passengers to switch to 'normal' mode to proceed by road.

They parked up in a nearby multi-story and walked to The Leaky Cauldron. "I'm thinking we should start with you three first," James said, indicating the three Jedi. "You've got the longest lists."

"I agree, books first," Jax added, so after taking care of money at Gringotts, they went to Flourish and Blotts, bought everyone's books and took a trip back to the cars to drop them off, Mel and Andrew almost wished they could skip getting new copies of Unfogging the Future.

"Did I dodge _that_ much of a bullet?" Jax asked as he packed his new Arithmancy book into the boot.

"Hell to the yeah, you did!" Andrew complained.

"Well, that's books done with, thank you for the ropes, Lily," Mel said, referring to the three copies of The Monster Book of Monsters.

With everyone's books bought and packed away, they all went around collecting cauldrons, potions supplies, telescopes, scales, leaving robes until last as they _all_ required dress robes.

While Andrew, Mel and Jax were getting fitted for new robes, Lily asked Harry how his robes were fitting, he said that he might soon outgrow them, so she insisted on catching up on something she'd missed. Harry was waiting his turn to get fitted while Mrs Weasley was looking at second hand dress robes for Fred and George.

"Do you always need to get things second hand?" James asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"Sadly yes, Arthur's job at the Ministry doesn't pay all too well," she answered.

"What's he do?" James asked casually.

"He works in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office."

"Oh yeah, probably one of the lowest pay grades there, Lily and I used to be Aurors, kinda hoping we can be again once we've gotten custody of Harry back."

"He could easily be running that office but he loves his job too much to get promoted."

"Maybe I should talk to him," James suggested. "He told me last night that he needs to provide for his own family, and if he's running the office, he can still do the work he loves, that's the perk of being the boss!" he laughed, Mrs Weasley giggled with him.

James looked closely at the prices on the collection of second hand robes. "Tell you what, let's let the boys pick robes they want, you pay what you would for second hand ones and I'll cover the rest, deal?"

Molly sighed and agreed that it would be better for her boys to have new clothes for a change.

"Thank Merlin your Dad's taking care of mine and Ginny's stuff, mate," Ron whispered to Harry, eyeing a maroon set of dress robes. "I just _know_ that Mum would've bought me _that_ thing!"

"Don't like maroon?" Lily asked, letting out a giggle as Ron shuddered.

Once everyone had been fitted for their robes, dress or otherwise, they stepped outside and bumped into a Jedi Master.

"Master Briant!" Mel said, surprised. "What brings you to Diagon Alley?"

"You wouldn't believe me, but Justin's been accepted to Hogwarts." Master Celeste Briant said with a sigh.

"Isn't that going to be something of an issue?" Jax asked, seeing Justin giving his Master's cuff a death grip. "How do you plan to cast spells if you can't see where to cast them?"

"Thanks, as if I wasn't scared enough!" Justin snapped, Jax apologised and Mel gave him a tight hug.

"We're working on that," Dumbledore said kindly, he was doing the same for Celeste and Justin as he had for Andrew, Jax and their Masters only three years ago.

"Professor, a word?" Andrew asked, an idea coming into his head. Albus nodded and motioned away from everyone else. "I know that Hogwarts doesn't permit dogs," Andrew started as soon as they were out of earshot. "But would you be willing and able to make an exception in Justin's case?"

"What do you have in mind?" Dumbledore asked.

"I remember hearing something once about specially trained guide dogs for people who work in a lot of meeting rooms, they find their way around office buildings by using differently scented air fresheners and accompanying scented cloths." Andrew explained. "If we could get one for Justin, he'd be able to at least get to his classes, in theory."

"He isn't the first student at Hogwarts who had lost the gift of sight," Dumbledore told the boy. "In the past an additional member of staff needed to be hired to guide the student from class to class, take notes, mix potions and such."

"Well, a dog removes the getting to classes issue," Andrew reasoned. "I've seen quills that take dictation notes, and for potions class, Justin's classmates could help him."

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully, taking Andrew's points to heart. "How long would you need to get the dog trained?"

"I believe they only need about a week to get the dog used to its new owner." Andrew answered.

"I'll clear it with the school governors, and I'll arrange for Professor Snape to have a teaching assistant for Justin's classes," Dumbledore said. "I'm led to believe that Justin can be taught to use the Force as his eyes, I presume that will be the focus of his training for the foreseeable future."

Andrew nodded and went back to the others, announcing that he had to go somewhere and rushing off. Within a minute, Master Briant was called on her Holo-com, to see the council, the others agreed to take care of Justin and she left too.

James and Lily were just about to take Justin in to Olivander's when Andrew and Celeste came back. "Where did you both vanish to?" Jax demanded.

"I had an idea." Andrew said simply.

"You'll need to narrow that down," Mel dead-panned, for Andrew 'having an idea' could literally mean anything.

"He spoke to Albus about Justin having a guide dog to take to school," Celeste explained. "It's the reason I was called to speak with the council, they wanted my opinion as Justin is my Padawan."

"I already gave my permission for an exception to school rules," Dumbledore added.

"Well, after we're done here, Justin's got an appointment to meet his new guide dog." Andrew explained.

"And how is a guide dog going to help around Hogwarts?" Hermione demanded with her hands on her hips.

"The place we're going to mostly caters to CEOs and business people who need to navigate around offices to get to meetings," Andrew explained. "They train their dogs to navigate from one board room to another office by using air fresheners and scented cloths. The blind person selects a cloth that's got like a minty scent and offers it to the dog to sniff, and the dog then sets off following that scent of mint until it finds the corresponding air freshener."

"That's impressive," Hermione admitted. "But won't we need a LOT of different scents?"

"I'm working on that," Andrew answered, waving a piece of parchment, on which he'd been writing a list of Justin's upcoming classes.

"I still don't get how I'm supposed to be able to do any of the work," Justin said, sounding a little sulky. "I mean, _Astronomy_? I can't _see_ my own hand waving in front of my face!" he illustrated by waving his hand over his eyes. "How in the _hell_ am I supposed to see the Sith-dammed _stars_!"

Celeste's heart broke as Justin ranted and she pulled him gently into a tight embrace. Dumbledore placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Believe me Justin, you are not the first to be in this position, sadly I daresay you won't be the last, but I promise you, you will be fine, I'll see to it personally if I have to."

Andrew felt tempted to point out his recent injury to Justin, and how that wasn't going to stop him from going back to school. After all, there would likely be no better time than now to tell his friends about what _really_ happened when he rescued Harry's parents. But he was still afraid of what their reaction would be, so he kept quiet.

"I believe in you Jay," Jax said, patting Justin's back.

"Just come to us if you need any help, don't try to be too much of a hero," Ginny added.

"And if anyone plays any pranks," Fred started.

"I'll know it was you," Justin blurted out.

George blinked in surprise. "I think we just got burned."

Fred nodded. "I was going to say, 'just tell us, we'll get them back for you'." The Jedi all gave him a look of disbelief. "Oh come _on_ , we _do_ have morals you know!"

That cheered Justin up enough to make him giggle a little, and Celeste took her pupil into Olivander's, along with Harry's parents. Everyone else just waited outside for fifteen minutes, enjoying the bright day.

"Oh, Andrew," Dumbledore suddenly burst out, making everyone jump from the sudden interruption to the silence.

"Yes, Professor?" Andrew asked.

"I just remembered that the Jedi and I require your assistance on the first of September." Dumbledore explained.

Andrew looked a little puzzled. "What with?"

"Well, a fair few of your fellow Jedi will be spending this year at the school while repairs are done to the Temple. Many of whom will be travelling on the train." the headmaster stated.

"I can help with that, Sir." Mel piped up.

"Thank you Melanie," Dumbledore said with a grateful nod. "The others, intend to fly."

"I was afraid of that," Andrew grumbled. "So, what's the plan?"

"If you can drive alongside the train, until it's out of London," Dumbledore started. "Perhaps you can transform to a flying vehicle, to guide the pilots down through the wards surrounding the train's route."

"Might work, Katt's been hardened to magical interference," Andrew said, thoughtfully. "I may have to ride ahead of the train once the pilots are nearer the ground, to give warnings of anything like upcoming tunnels, but other than that, I can't see any complications."

"Excellent, so you'll do it?" Dumbledore asked.

"No problem, Professor."

"So where do I come in with all this?" Jax asked.

"I could use you in the air," Andrew told him. "You can use your craft to keep track of mine, hopefully."

"Works for me, Starkiller's got your back, Bro." Jax said.

"Starkiller?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"His call sign," Mel answered with a sigh. "I've never liked it."

"It's a pilot thing," Andrew said with a shrug as Celeste, Lily, James and Justin came out of the shop.

"That was quick!" Jax commented, glancing over Justin's shoulder into the shop.

"The first wand he handed to me 'picked' me," Justin answered.

"Olivander was so disappointed!" James laughed.

"When I got my wand," Harry started. "I must've gone through every wand he had. It got to the point where I thought I'd never find one, not that I knew what was going on."

"You would've known if you'd grown up with us," James said, a little darkly.

"The weird thing was, the more worried I got, the happier Mr Olivander seemed to get." Harry finished.

"Yes, he's like that," Lily giggled. "He loves a 'difficult' customer."

"Are you ready for your appointment?" Mel asked Justin kindly, taking his hand and placing it on her elbow.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Justin answered.

"I'll tell Katt to drive back to The Burrow herself and fly everyone else back, you two need to see the Council." Andrew told his childhood friends.

Jax nodded and the four of them headed off. Andrew got everyone else back to The Burrow and excused himself to take Katt and head back to London, saying that he needed to do some planning with the Council for the big journey north.

James and Lily couldn't express their gratitude enough with Arthur and Molly offered for the younger couple to stay for as long as they needed, until they got Harry and their home legally returned to them.

The next week passed in relative quiet, Andrew, Mel and Jax kept in touch every day. Andrew gave the good news that Mel and Jax had seen the Council and their new relationship had been approved, so Fred and George were free to poke fun at the two of them.

On the morning of September the first, there was a slight commotion at The Burrow as Mr Weasley got a message from work, Mad-Eye Moody had reported a break-in and his dustbins had caused a scene.

Just as Mr Weasley was about to head out and book some Muggle taxis, there was a roar of jets as two Jedi shuttles landed on the grass. Jax stepped out of one and Andrew the other. "Figured you'd need a lift, put all the luggage in my shuttle because Jax needs to get back to the Temple ASAP." Andrew explained.

They quickly loaded Harry's, Hermione's, Ron's, Ginny's, Fred's and George's trunks into Andrew's shuttle and then Harry, his parents and Ginny took seats while Mrs Weasley, the twins, Bill, Charlie, Ron and Hermione all loaded into Jax's craft, with all the pets. They took off and were in London in fifteen minutes.

They landed on top of a multi-story car park, across from King's Cross, and unloaded everyone from Jax's ship before he took off and switched to fighter mode to fly back to the Temple hanger. "He's leading the flying formation." Andrew explained after Katt switched to 'watch' mode.

With fairly little difficulty, they made their way down to the street level and rushed across the street to get out of the rain. They made their way to platforms nine and ten, finding the place massively crowded.

"This might cause something of a problem." Andrew commented, seeing a mixture of Muggles, Jedi and Hogwarts families alike. Thankfully most of the wizarding families were helping groups of Jedi discretely make their way through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters. While this happened, Muggle trains had arrived on both platforms nine and ten and Muggles were climbing aboard, leaving more room for Harry and his friends to make their way through.

When they got to the barrier to platform nine and three quarters, most of the Jedi had been escorted through, it turned out that there were also ministry wizards helping out. Some of them were distracting the crowds while people walked through what appeared to be a solid pillar of brick.

Once they were all through, they met up with Mel, who, not being much for piloting, was helping to get younger Padawans and their mentors onboard the two coaches at the back of the train. "Hey Mel, any sign of Justin?" Ginny asked, looking around with concern.

"He's already on the train," Mel answered, pointing to where the boy was sitting in a compartment by the window. Harry and the others all silently agreed to join him there, where they found someone else sharing the compartment with him, she had dark, shoulder-length hair, with braided bangs on either side of her face, she looked to be about Ginny's age. Fred expanded the room and they all packed their trunks away.

Mel joined them and Andrew poked his head through the window, still standing on the platform. "You're not getting on with us?" Ginny asked.

"Sorry, no, I've got a job to get done today, but I'll be pretty much along-side you all the way." Andrew answered.

"Morning everyone," Draco said cheerfully as he entered the compartment. The other girl glared daggers at him and told him to get lost.

"That's a little uncalled for," Hermione said simply.

"Not if you knew what I did about this son of a bitch!" the other girl snapped.

"You don't even know him, who the hell do you think you are?" Mel demanded.

"Phoebe Carter, and I was here first, so he can get lost!" she repeated. Draco went from looking shocked to very defeated, he took his trunk from the luggage rack and went into the next compartment, Mel glared at the other girl and followed him.

"Any idea what that was about?" she asked him as they sat down, there was again only one other person in this compartment, she was about their age with waist length bright red hair and blue eyes.

"Not now," Draco muttered, sitting down by the window.

Down on the platform, Andrew locked eyes with this girl and couldn't help but stare, a lot. "Earth to Andrew?" George joked, waving a hand in front of Andrew's eyes, jerking him out of his thoughts as the whistle blew.

"Katt, pod mode." Andrew commanded his watch, using his other hand to tap a comm. device in his right ear. "Jax, the train's about to set off, I'm currently at King's Cross, facing..." he checked Katt's dashboard. ".. east." he pipped his horn to alert parents on the platform that he needed to come through and ducked down so that Katt's dome cover could slide shut over him.

"Oh that is _so_ cool!" Fred declared enthusiastically, watching as Andrew started rolling slowly, keeping pace with the train. Mel poked her head back in and left a speaker with Harry so they they could listen in on the comm. channel before going back to sit with Draco next door.

"What did you think Charlie was on about?" Ron asked. "About seeing him sooner than we think."

"No idea," Harry said, focusing on the speaker in his hands as it crackled to life.

" _I'm off the platform, still heading east, I see a fifty degree turn to the left coming up, I'm increasing speed, up to forty miles an hour_." came Andrew's voice.

" _Roger that Mobius, all wings, fire up your engines and get ready for take-off_ " they heard Jarod Cooper's voice. " _Starkiller, go_!"

" _Rodger that, Swordsman_!" said Jax.

In the other compartment, Mel was determined to get Draco to talk. "You know what that girl was snapping at you for, spill!"

Draco sighed. "I was … maybe six, I can't remember exactly. I asked my mother if I could play in our dungeon, I enjoyed pretending to be a knight and slaying dragons down there." he started, Mel listened intently and the other girl just looked out of the window, trying not to eavesdrop.

"She told me no, but I went anyway, I wish every day that I hadn't, maybe then I wouldn't know why that girl hates me so much." Draco's eyes were hyper-focused on his shoes as he talked. "Her father's a Muggle-born, so was her Aunt. I caught my father in the dungeons that day, with a bunch of his friends … they were abusing a woman they had chained to the wall, she was naked..." he shuddered at his memories. "… and they took turns … raping her"

By this point, Draco's face was turning slightly green. "I didn't know who she was, but they kept calling her 'Carter', after my father's friends were done and left, my father stepped up to her … I thought then that he would save her … but instead, he took his turn and then killed her."

"You've hated your father ever since," Mel said simply, Draco nodded.

"I did what I could to find out who she was, that's how I found out she was a Muggle-born, I wanted to see my father punished for it, so I sent an anonymous letter to her only family, her brother and niece." Draco explained.

"So she knows your father raped and killed her Aunt and she hates you for just being a Malfoy." Mel reasoned, Draco jumped when the other girl placed a hand on his.

"You're clearly nothing like your dad," she said, she had an interesting accent, a perfectly blended mixture of Russian and American. "I'm sorry you had to see something like that, and you did the right thing, everything you could at that age."

"Thank you, um.." Draco started.

"Oh, sorry, where are my manors?" she started with a light giggle. "Katylina Romanovski." she finished, offering her hand.

Mel and Draco accepted her offered hand. "Russian?" Mel asked.

"On my father's side, my Mom's an American No-Maj-Born." she explained. "I was born and raised in San Francisco, but went to school at Durmstrang, and the most common language there is Russian."

"What's got you on _this_ train then?" Draco asked, curiously.

"Exchange program," Katylina answered simply.

"So, do you go by Katylina? Or is there a nickname?" Mel asked.

"My Daddy calls me his little kitten sometimes, but my friends call me Katy."

"Thank god, that's less of a mouthful." Draco chuckled as he glanced out the window. "Looks like we're getting out of the city."

Mel took that opportunity to turn on her speaker. " _The train's picking up speed, we'll be out of London in about ninety seconds, I'm gonna move to the other side of the train, there's more room._ " Andrew said, they looked out of the window to watch Andrew's bike.

Andrew moved to the left, getting a little away from the train, before he moved violently towards it, looking like he was going to collide with the carriage his friends were in, except that his bike went almost completely vertical as it slipped under the train, spinning on the sides of its wheels like a whirling dervish, and out the other side.

" _Katt, normal mode, off-road tyres_!" Andrew commanded, people who had seen Andrew alongside the train flooded out of the compartments to watch him as he turned from a souped up motorbike to an Aston Martin, the engine roared to life as Andrew buried his foot into the floor and went dangerously airborne as he went off a slight slope, then the vehicle changed again as it turned into a Jedi fighter jet.

" _I'm in the air, where are you Starkiller_?" Andrew's voice asked from Harry's and Mel's compartments.

" _Just leaving London's airspace Mobius, I can't see you yet, what's your altitude_?"

" _About thirty feet, starting to climb,_ " Andrew said, just as he pulled up harshly.

" _There, I see you, Swordsman, I have a visual on Mobius, ready to descend_!"

" _Understood Starkiller, all pilots report in_!" Jarod commanded.

There was a long line of voices calling out names and numbers, most of them sounded like teenagers, though for some reason there was no 'Red Five'.

" _Remember Nuggets, keep a clear head and don't panic, you've got this._ " Andrew said soothingly, as some of the voices sounded terrified. " _I know for a lot of you, it's your first time out of the simulator, but you wouldn't have been chosen to fly today if we didn't think you were ready._ "

" _Mobius is right, just lock on my thrusters and follow my lead,_ " called Jarod.

" _Keep it tight and keep it low, steady on the thrusters and here we go_!" as Jax finished speaking, he dived, Andrew had dropped down again, transformed into 'pod' mode and landed wheels first on the roof of the train before dropping off the train and landing on the left of the carriages again.

Several of the children on the train screamed in shock or fear as almost a hundred fighter jets then followed Andrew and flanked the Hogwarts Express, a few of the fighters wavering in the air as they pulled out of their dive and tried to level out.

" _Alright Nuggets,_ " Jax called, using the pilot term for 'trainee'. " _You've done enough for today, bring 'em in for a nice smooth t-landing._ "

At those words, thirty jets moved closer to the ground and transformed into shuttle-cars. There were a few sighs of relief over the comms channel from the drivers. " _Alright, this is gonna be a weird command, but I promise it's rare,_ " came Andrew's voice. " _Keep talking, I gotta move on ahead and test the comms range._ "

With that, Andrew's bike roared louder and shot off ahead of the train. " _I gotta say, for a machine that was first released in the mid nineteen thirties, the locomotive is in_ excellent _condition."_ came a voice over the comm. channel.

" _Seriously?_ " came another voice. " _We're driving along-side a train full of witches and wizards, to a school we've never heard about, and_ that's _what you decide to point out!_ "

There were a few chuckles from people who could hear the speakers. " _Alright you can cut the chatter now!_ " Andrew called. " _Swordsman, my best range is about three miles ahead of you, and my radar works up to a further ten._ "

" _Understood Mobius, continue to hold distance and call out anything in our path, we need to stay together as much as possible until Hogsmeade._ " Jarod replied, having remained in the air.

By now everyone had filed back into compartments. Fred had taken the time, and risk, to reassure a twelve year old Padawan in the car by their compartment that she was doing a great job so far, having to yell at the top of his lungs. His point was helped by holding his thumbs up.

Harry then asked Phoebe why she had such a problem with Draco. "Started when I was five," she started with a sigh. "My mother died when I was born, she was a pureblood, disowned by her family for marrying my dad, a Muggle-born, so I've never met them. Growing up it was just me, Dad and my Aunt Maggie."

They all nodded and she continued. "So when I was five, my Aunt vanished, we never saw her again, and we asked the Ministry to investigate, they never found her. Then one day, my Dad gets an anonymous letter, explaining in exact detail, how my Aunt was violated repeatedly in the Malfoy Manner dungeon, and finally killed by Lucius Malfoy when he'd finished his turn."

Ron looked shocked and ready to be sick at this, Hermione and Ginny were equally mortified, but it was Fred and George who were the voices of reason. "Draco's only a year older than you right?" Fred said.

"Yeah, he'd only be six when it happened, you can't exactly blame _him_ for something that happened way back then." George added.

"Apple never rots far from the tree!" Phoebe snapped.

"( _Wouldn't be surprised if Draco was the one who sent that letter,_ )" Ginny said to the others.

"( _You'd be right, Gin,_ )" Mel said from the next compartment.

"( _Explains how he knew what Death Eaters do to Muggle-borns,_ )" Ron added.

"Poor Draco," Harry accidentally said out loud, causing Phoebe to snap her head around at him.

" _What_!" she demanded.

"Crap," Harry muttered. "Nothing, just thinking out loud."

"Why 'poor Draco' though, what about my poor Aunt?!"

"Did you ever consider that Draco might have been the one who wrote to your father?" Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah, poor kid might've seen something no six-year-old should." George added.

Rather than seeing their point, she got up in a huff, grabbed her trunk and stormed out, intent on finding somewhere else to sit.

" _Warning, tunnel coming up! You lot have less than thirteen miles to get into single file!_ " Andrew shouted over the comms.

There was a scramble as the cars on the ground slowed down to line up behind the train, some of the fighters landed on the cars to save room and the rest gained altitude to go over the hill.

Once they were through the tunnel, the rest of the journey was extremely smooth. When it started to rain and the wind picked up, Andrew contemplated trying to get back on the train, but stuck it out to remain the early warning if the pilots needed it.

Eventually the call came from Jax. " _Mobius I think we're nearly there! The train's slowing down, all pilots and drivers, maintain course and speed, we're going airborne for the last leg of the trip._ " he ordered, causing the shuttle-cars to transform.

"( _I don't like these weather conditions, I'm worried about there being an accident,_ )" Andrew said to Jax.

"( _I know what you mean,_ )" Jax answered, just as Jarod ordered all trainees to remain below one hundred feet and at just enough speed to avoid a stall. Thankfully, the last jet landed vertically as the train pulled in, Andrew revving up onto the platform, he managed to launch himself and Katt seven feet into the air, and mid-backflip, he ordered Katt to transform back to watch mode, landing casually on his feet as the doors all opened.

Andrew met up with his friends, who helped Justin and his German Shepard guide dog over to Hagrid, and then led the remaining Jedi Masters and Padawans up to the coaches that would take them all up to the school.

"I just hope Justin and his dog will be alright on that lake." Hermione fretted, her eyes never leaving the sky.

"If I know Hagrid, he'll dive in after them if they go overboard." Harry answered reassuringly.

They rode up to the castle in the same carriages that waited for them the year before, all of them having to turn around and head back to the village once they'd dropped their passengers, because of the extra people to transport. Every single person who stepped out of a carriage ran for the entrance hall to get out of the rain.

"Andrew, who was that odd little creature?" Celeste Briant asked as Harry and his friends got through the door.

"You'll have to narrow that down, Master!" Andrew chuckled.

"Err, sort of a purple face, long nose, pointy ears and teeth, had a stack of balloons," said one of the Padawans, pointing to a spot in the air.

"Oh, Peeves, he's the resident Poltergeist," Harry answered. "Watch out for him, he loves causing trouble and picking on new people."

"Funny, he took one look at us, dropped his balloons and shot off, it was like watching Sonic the Hedgehog." said another Padawan with a shrug.

"Probably noticed six Jedi walk in at the same time and thought better of it." Fred laughed, heading into the Great hall.

In the Great Hall, there was a very obvious change, the room had been vastly expanded to accommodate four additional tables, two between the Hufflepuff table and the fireplace, and two between the Slytherin table and the windowed wall, the teachers' table had been lengthened too, most likely to accommodate the Masters, or perhaps just the Council.

With the assistance of Masters Cooper and Lee, Professor Flitwick was directing Jedi Padawans, Knights and Masters to the two tables by the fire, and Professor Snape was directing Dark Jedi Apprentices, Assassins and Masters to the tables next to Slytherin house.

Andrew for some reason was looking around the hall, almost feverishly, until suddenly, he pointed to a beam across the ceiling. "I KNEW IT!" he shouted. "Dumbledore's using one of my TARDIS cubes!"

At the teachers' table, Dumbledore simply raised a goblet in solute to Andrew, while everyone else gave Andrew a familiar, funny look. "One of your what?" Ron demanded.

"TARDIS cubes," Andrew answered. "It's basically a small cube with a dial on it that's infused with a Capaxo Charm, don't you remember me drawing the design for it last year?"

"Oh yeah, I remember now," Ron answered. "How's it work then?"

"Just attach it to something that's part of the physical room, hang it from a hook on the wall for example, and turn the dial until the room is the size you want it to be." Mel explained, earning an amazed look from Andrew. "I read the instructions before I sent one here, it's being put to good use I say."

They then took seats at the Gryffindor table. "I hope they hurry up with the Sorting, I'm starving." Harry groaned.

"Might take a while, what with having to get all the Jedi settled in," George answered, seeing there was a bit of a hold up as those who were flying or driving finally got in.

"What do you think kept them?" Fred asked.

"They were pitching tents," Andrew answered. "It was the first order of business for everyone who didn't get on the train." Jax was the last one to get in, soaked from head to foot, and Draco had saved a seat for him at the Slytherin table.

Colin Creevey caught Harry's attention, wanting to tell how his younger brother was a first year and how he hoped that Dennis would be sorted into Gryffindor. "Brothers and sisters usually go in the same houses, don't they?"

"Nope," Andrew answered. "Look at the Patil twins, Parvati's in our house and Padma's in Ravenclaw, honestly, doesn't _anyone_ remember _anything_?"

"Be fair, you're talking about something that happened three years ago!" Ron complained.

"Any idea where the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is?" Hermione asked, she was looking at the teachers' table. Andrew and Mel looked too, there were a lot of empty seats, but as the Jedi finished filing to their tables, members of the London Council started to fill them. Both the seats on either side of Dumbledore's were empty, one was Professor McGonagall's, she was no doubt making sure the Entrance Hall floor was being kept dry and waiting to collect the first-years from Hagrid to escort them into the Great Hall for sorting.

The other, Harry and his friends all guessed, was reserved for Master Cooper, as he was in charge of the Jedi who were staying for the year. Sure enough, once all the other Jedi were seated, he walked up to the chair on Dumbledore's left and sat down.

"Maybe one of the Master's is teaching it." Lee Jordan joked, having taken a seat next to George.

"I highly doubt _that_!" Hermione snapped. "A Jedi wouldn't know the first thing to teach a first-year, let alone a seventh!"

"Oh hurry up," Ron complained. "I could eat a Hippogriff!"

"How dare you," Andrew scolded playfully, just as the doors opened again, and in came Professor McGonagall, followed by the first-years. There were a view stifled gasps as people from the four houses noticed Justin being led in line by a German Shepard wearing a harness, many even whispering about dogs not being allowed in school.

Andrew scowled when he saw Crabbe, Goyle and McCarthy pointing at Justin and laughing, but couldn't fight the grin when all three of them stopped laughing and started clawing at their necks, like someone was strangling them. The Padawan tilted his head to the side a little and noticed three Apprentices using the Force to choke the Slytherins, until a Master quietly came along and tapped them on the shoulder to make them stop.

The first-years got to the teachers' table and stopped in a line, all dripping wet. Several people, even a few at the nearby tables, recoiled when Bones, the guide dog, shook out his wet fur violently. Andrew didn't mind so much this time when most of the Great Hall giggled. There was one boy who seemed wetter than the rest, he was wearing Hagrids coat, he waved to Colin and mouthed that he'd fallen in the lake.

Professor McGonagall placed a familiar three-legged stool in front of the teachers' table and an extremely old hat on top of it. Everyone stared at it, the Jedi all looking confused as hell, as a tear opened at the top of the hat and it began to sing. It wasn't the same song Andrew remembered three years ago, and Ron pointed out during the applause that it sang a different song every year.

"When I call your name, you will put on the Hat and sit on the stool," McGonagall told the first-years as she unrolled a large scroll of parchment. "When the Hat announces your house, you will go and sit at the appropriate table."

'Ackerley, Stewart' was sorted into Ravenclaw, followed by 'Braddock, Malcolm' going to Slytherin. The Jedi around the room were quickly getting the idea of how this ceremony worked, also picking up that those in blue were Ravenclaw and green was Slytherin. Yellow was clearly Hufflepuff, as 'Branstone, Eleanor' and 'Cauldwell, Oliver' both went to that house, and red was Gryffindor as...

"Cloudstone, Justin," McGonagall called, Andrew hushed everyone around him as he paid rapt attention, McGonagall kindly helped Justin onto the stool and gently placed the Hat on his head. The boy flinched visibly as he heard the Hat's voice in his head, but soon it called out that he was a Gryffindor.

As the rest of the table applauded Justin, Mel got up and helped him to a seat she'd saved in the hopes he'd join her house. Right after him, 'Creevey, Dennis' soon followed him. The Sorting continued, with 'Delacour, Gabrielle' being sorted into Ravenclaw, Ron complaining that it was taking too long for his stomach, until a name was called that caused total silence in the room.

"Payne, Elizabeth!" McGonagall called. Andrew's head turned so fast his neck clicked. He watched as his little sister, who he hadn't seen since Christmas during his second year, stepped up to the stool. She had blonde hair which reached down to her waist and bright blue eyes, her eyesight wasn't as good as Andrew's, so she wore a pair of plastic-framed blue glasses.

"You've got a sister?" Harry hissed at the Jedi.

"He's got two, and a brother," Mel answered as the girl sat on the stool, there were tear stains on her cheeks as the Hat covered her eyes. As the Hat announced that she was a Ravenclaw, Andrew got up from the table, almost in a trance. Elizabeth's eyes went as wide as saucers when she saw who was walking towards her.

The girl let out a scream and, ignoring the Ravenclaw table, ran at Andrew, who dropped to his knees and hugged his sister tightly. "You jerk!" she cried into his shoulder.

"What did I do _this_ time?" Andrew demanded as she soaked his neck. She pulled away and punched his left shoulder, hard.

"Fire at the Jedi Temple in London, where you happen to live. Twelve people dead, and we don't hear from you?!" she almost shrieked. Andrew flinched as he caught on to what she was saying, with everything that happened on that day and since, he'd not thought to get in touch with his family.

"Okay, message received, I'll write to Mum and Dad as soon as I can, promise." he said, trying to calm the irate girl down.

"You better," Elizabeth snapped.

"And you're a witch? Since when?" Andrew asked, getting to his feet and walking her to her table.

"Two days after we heard about the fire."

"Are you two quite finished?" McGonagall snapped, waving her scroll.

"Sorry Professor," Andrew called. "We'll catch up later." he whispered to his sister and darted back to the Gryffindor table.

"For a guy who never forgets anything," Ron started with a smirk. "You sure do let a lot slip your mind."

"Bite me Ron!" Andrew hissed back as 'Pritchard, Graham' became a Slytherin. Next was 'Romanovski, Katylina', Andrew glanced to see the girl he'd stared at on the train, he started staring again as she put on the Hat and sat on the stool. She was sorted into Gryffindor and Andrew got up to offer her his place, causing his friends to giggle at him as they moved to make space for him to sit down again. Two students later and the Sorting was over, much to Ron's delight. McGonagall took the Hat and stool away as Dumbledore stood up with his arms spread wide.

"I have only two words to say to you all," he announced. "Tuck, in!"

"Amen!" Andrew, Fred, George and Lee all cheered, as food magically appeared on the plates.

While they did as Dumbledore asked, Nearly Headless Nick pointed out that there nearly wasn't a feast. Peeves had wanted to attend the feast for years, but this year he'd thrown a tantrum in the kitchen when he'd been denied entry yet again.

"Wreaked havoc and mayhem." he explained as Ron asked what the poltergeist had done. "Pots and pans everywhere. Place swimming in soup. Terrified the house-elves out of their wits.."

Hermione was reaching for her goblet of pumpkin juice as she heard that there were house-elves at Hogwarts, she was so shocked by the news that she knocked the goblet over. She drilled Nick on the subject, learning that there were over a hundred elves working in the castle, and when she asked if they got sick leave, pensions and wages, the ghost just laughed at her about it.

This caused Hermione to put down her knife and fork and push her untouched plate away from herself, she refused to eat as the food was made, in her opinion, by 'slave labour'. Ron spent the rest of the feast trying to tempt her to eat by wafting food under her nose, until she gave him a look worthy of Professor McGonagall, when he gave up.

Andrew however, decided to leave Ron and Hermione to themselves, and chose to get to know Katylina. "So I'm guessing you're an exchange student," he said. "Given that there's a French girl our age starting this year too."

"You're right," she answered. "Andrew, right?" Andrew answered with a nod. "Mel told me on the train that you're a bit of a detective." she giggled.

"It's a hobby." Andrew waved it off casually. "How're you liking Hogwarts so far?"

"It's not too bad, I'm loving the ceiling in here." she said, looking up at the stormy sky.

"Me too, no need for the BBC to get the weather wrong, when we've got that." Andrew answered, following her gaze. "Bit of advice for you, don't go anywhere alone for the first few months, this place has a few things like vanishing steps you need to watch out for, and it helps if you've got a friend with you if the worst should happen."

"Or they can miss the step so I know to miss it too?" she asked.

"Yep, or sometimes, a step might just suck your foot into it and you _really_ need help to get yourself out." Harry added.

Just as Harry said that, there were two quick, loud beeps heard above the chatter. The sound repeated itself over and over, until the buzz of chatter died down.

"What is that?" Hermione asked, looking around.

"I told you about that game that's been going through the Order, right?" Mel asked her, she got a nod in reply. "Well that sound means that someone's picking up a creature they can catch, I wonder who though."

All the Jedi around the room were checking their devices to see who was bleeping. "Seriously, who is that?" Andrew shouted, before he patted his pocket. "Wait, it's me, sorry!" This caused a rumble of mocking laughter as he fumbled with his pocket.

He pulled out something that looked like a high-tech mobile phone and got up from the table, walking towards the doors, the bleeping grew quieter. "Nope, other way," he muttered.

"What exactly is going on Jarod," Dumbledore asked the Jedi Master quietly.

"It'll be easier to let you watch Albus, personally I find a capture rather entertaining." Jarod answered as Andrew walked towards the teachers' table, the bleeping getting louder and more rapid.

The bleeping turned into a ringing and Andrew pressed a button on the touch screen, causing the device on his right wrist to light up as a hologram was generated on the stone floor right where the Sorting Hat was sat earlier.

The hologram solidified, revealing a green-skinned creature, it stood on two feet, with three claws on each foot, it had wide-looking hips, four wings, three horns and two sharp looking blades where its hands or paws should have been. "Scyther" it hissed as it uncrossed his blades, making the sound of metal ring out across the hall.

"Oh cool! Somebody make a note, first Scyther seen ever!" Andrew cried out with joy as he removed his Jedi robe, revealing a belt with six red and silver marbles attached. "Now, Scyther's a bug-type, birds eat bugs, so Pidgey, I choose you!" he pulled a marble from his belt, pressing a button on it, it swelled up to the size of an orange, he then pressed the button again as it threw it at the creature. The ball opened up, letting out a burst of bright white light, the light shot to the floor between Andrew and the Scyther, forming itself into the shape of a small bird, the light faded and there on the stone floor sat the tiniest bird anyone had ever seen.

"Pidgey," it hooted softly.

"ARE YOU NUTS!" one of the Apprentices yelled. "Great logic but seriously, a Pidgey against a Scyther? You're gonna get slaughtered, dude!"

"Let's see how it goes, Pidgey, Gust attack!" Andrew commanded, the tiny little bird nodded, saying its name again as it took off, beating its wings harder and faster than anyone would expect and creating a tiny little tornado which shot forward and hit the Scyther square in the face. It crossed its blades again and blocked the attack, growling back angrily before leaping forward with a raised blade, ready to slash at Andrew's Pidgey. "PIDGEY RETURN!" Andrew yelled, holding out the red and silver ball as a red light shot out and hit the bird, pulling it back into the ball.

"Told you!" called the Apprentice.

Andrew pulled another ball from his belt, getting ready to throw it. "Bulbasaur..."

"DON'T DO THAT! YOU FOOL!" shouted a Knight from the other side of the room. "BUGS EAT GRASS!"

"Oh yeah, they do," Andrew said, putting that ball back and selecting another one. "Growlithe! You're up!" he threw his ball and like the last one, it popped open in a burst of light, this time taking the form of an orange puppy, with black stripes on its back and beige belly fur, it growled at the Scyther, but didn't say a name.

"Growlithe, use Ember!" Andrew ordered, the puppy opened its mouth and flames shot out, hitting the Scyther square in the chest before it could block the attack with its blades, it hissed out its name as it rubbed the black mark. "Hit it again Growlithe!" more flames hit the bug and it dropped to one knee, propping itself up with one of the blades. "Now tackle it!" Growlithe started running right at the Scyther, pouncing at its face and knocking it on its back. " _Pokéball_ , go!" Andrew threw the last ball on his belt at the Scyther, it crashed into the creature's skull and opened up, Scyther dissolved into a ball of red light and was sucked into the ball, which closed and landed on the floor, wiggling from left to right.

The ball eventually stopped wiggling, and the button which was glowing red, faded back to silver. "Yes!" Andrew hissed, clenching his left fist. "Gotcha, good job Growlithe." Growlithe ran back to his master, wagging his little tail as the ball on the floor flew into the Padawan's hand. "Sorry about the disturbance Professors." the hall applauded as Andrew returned to his seat.

"I'll trade you an Electabuzz for that Scyther!" one of the Assassins called out.

"Are you kidding?" Andrew called back. "No way, it's my Scyther."

"Wow, that was _awesome_ ," Ginny gushed.

"So what have you caught so far?" Mel asked, curious.

"Well, I started with a Bulbasaur and I've since caught a Psyduck, Pidgey, Pikachu, Growlithe and now Scyther." Andrew answered.

"Full team then," Hermione commented, earning a look from Andrew. "I get bored during the holidays sometimes!" she said defensively.

"You did great there Growlithe," Andrew praised as the little creature propped itself on the bench with its front paws. "Here, have some bacon," the Padawan offered, Growlithe snapped it up and gobbled it down. "Good boy, return," Andrew commanded gently as the puppy turned into a red beam of light and returned to its p _okéball_.

"Why feed it if it's a hologram?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It might seem pointless, but I dunno," Andrew answered with a shrug, "it feels more natural to treat them as flesh and blood."

Once the food was all gone, the plates wiped themselves clean and Dumbledore got to his feet. "So!" he called loudly, smiling around the Hall. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

He told them how Filch had added three more items to the list of forbidden objects and that the full list of four hundred and thirty-seven items could be reviewed in the caretakers office. He reminded returning students that the forest was out-of-bounds to all students, including the visiting Jedi, and that the village of Hogsmeade could only be visited by third-year students or older, and that any Padawans wishing to go had to be accompanied by with Master.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." Dumbledore announced, pausing as he expected there to be an outcry against it.

There was a collective gasp around the Hall but nobody actually shouted anything at the Headmaster, so he continued. "This is due to an event that will be starting at the end of October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy. However I am sure that you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts..."

The headmaster was interrupted by a deafening rumble of thunder, just as the doors to the Great Hall burst open, revealing a figure in a black travelling cloak, he lowered the hood, shaking out a mane of grizzled grey hair and limped his way up to the top table, leaning heavily on a wooden staff and creating a dull clunk with every other step.

As he got to Dumbledore, there was a flash of lightning and the man's face was lit up. It was just a mass of scars with part of his nose missing and two mismatched eyes, one black and beady and the other clearly an implant of some kind. It was bright, electric blue and spinning around of its own accord.

After Dumbledore exchanged a few pleasantries with the scarred man, he motioned him to the one empty chair at the teachers' table. As the man started to eat, Dumbledore announced that he was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody.

"Mad-Eye Moody?" Harry hissed to Ron, mentioning something that had happened before Andrew and Jax had picked them up from The Burrow that morning.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued, having cleared his throat, trying to break the tension Moody's arrival had caused. "We are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred yelled, causing multiple people around the Hall to laugh.

"I am _not_ joking, Mr Weasley," Dumbledore answered with a chuckle, "though, now you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar.."

McGonagall cleared her throat loudly before the headmaster could go too far off track.

"Er … but maybe this is not the time … no ..." Dumbledore said awkwardly. "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament … well, many of you will not know what this Tournament involves, so I hope those who _do_ know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wonder freely."

He explained how the tournament was started seven hundred years ago and was held every five years, that a champion was chosen to represent each of the three schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbaton and Durmstrang, in three magical tasks. The tournament moved from one school to the next and was used to help young witches and wizards build friendships with those in other countries. As they listened, every Jedi in the room considered it to be an amazing idea, until Dumbledore mentioned that many of the champions got themselves killed competing.

Dumbledore went on to explain that there had been several attempts to bring the tournament back, and that this year they were going to try again, having worked hard over the summer to ensure that none of the competitors would be in mortal danger.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving on the thirtieth of September with their short-listed contenders, and the selection of the three champions will take place during our Hallowe'en feast. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money." Dumbledore finished.

The Hall erupted with people whispering about how they intended to put their name in to be Hogwarts Champion, while Andrew leaned over to Katylina. "(I somewhat feel sorry for you)," he muttered in fluent Russian.

"(Why?)" she asked, curious, and shocked that his accent was flawless.

"(You're from Durmstrang, yet enrolled at Hogwarts, which Champion do you support?)" Andrew asked, drawing a few confused looks from his friends and a smile from Mel. Katylina nodded that Andrew had a point as Dumbledore spoke again.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he called over the chatter, bringing it to a halt, "the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age – that is to say, seventeen years or older – will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration."

At these words, a lot of the students shouted words of complaint, George going so far as to yell "THAT'S RUBBISH!". Dumbledore explained, loudly, that even with the precautions taken, it was agreed that the tasks would be too difficult and dangerous for anyone younger than seventeen to cope with.

"Little bit ageist, but it makes perfect sense." Mel said with a shrug.

"I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion," his eyes were twinkling as he looked right at Fred and George. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

Andrew turned to Fred and George. "I beg you to try anyway," he hissed.

"Why?" George asked, suspiciously.

"He's a hundred and fifty years old, he's _got_ to have a prankster's streak in there somewhere and I'd _love_ to see you two get pranked for once!" Andrew was grinning as he said this and Ron was sniggering.

"As I said before, the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving on the thirtieth of September, which will only be a half-day for lessons along with a feast to welcome our guests. They will be staying until the end of the school year, and I know you will each extend every courtesy to them. I also hope that you will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected." Dumbledore paused then to look sombrely to the four tables of Jedi around the room.

"Now, I've no doubt that by now, between extra carriages on the train, multiple pilots escorting the train and the additional tables here in the Great Hall, we are hosting the refugees of the recent tragedy in London." the headmaster explained, causing some whispers to break out.

"Finally we find out why they're here," one Ravenclaw girl whispered.

"It is with deep regret that I inform many of you, that the Jedi Temple in London, was the recent victim of arson, someone deliberately set fire to the headquarters of the Jedi Order, resulting in the deaths of _fifteen_ people," there were horrified gasps around the Hall and Elizabeth left her table to go and hug her brother as his head drooped to hide his watering eyes. She had only known about twelve fatalities. "I ask all of you to please be upstanding, and observe a moment of silence."

There was a scraping of benches as everyone stood up, except for most of the Slytherin table, which didn't move until Snape and McGonagall glared at them. The Hall was completely silent for a minute, until Jarod nodded to the far corner, and Jak started playing a piccolo. Every head turned to notice that all but the lead singer of The Immortals were standing in the corner, minus their instruments. Jak played sixteen notes from John Williams' Binary Sunset, when he was joined by the Jedi humming the rest of the tune.

"May those who have fallen, rest in the everlasting peace of the Force." Dumbledore prayed loudly but gently as the humming died away. Many were wiping tears from their eyes as Dumbledore ordered them to bed.

"We'll catch up over the weekend, okay Lizzy?" Andrew asked his sister, she nodded as she left to follow a Ravenclaw prefect up to her dormitory. Fred and George stopped and glared at Dumbledore, complaining that their seventeenth birthday was in April and that it wasn't fair that they get left out.

"Are you okay?" Katylina asked Andrew, seeing the tears in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied, wiping his eyes with his gloved hand. "Just survivors guilt I suppose. I was at the Quidditch World Cup when it happened," he paused to shake his head, "I should've been there to help."

She rubbed his right shoulder, noting to herself how rock solid his muscles had to be. "You can't change the past you know." she watched as he scoffed a little, wondering what just went through his mind. "It's true you know!"

"I could argue that ever so slightly, but you're pretty much right." he said with a sigh. "I just can't shake the feeling that I should've done _something_!"

As they were walking, they were joined by Neville, who joined in the conversation of weather or not they should try and get around Dumbledore's plans to keep them out of the tournament. "I expect my gran'd want me to try, though," he said, a little miserably, "she's always going on about how I should be upholding the family honour. I'll just have to – ooops ..."

"See what I meant earlier, Katylina?" Andrew asked as his hand shot under one of Neville's arms, his foot had literally just sunk into a trick step. "This one's always catching poor Neville out, but you've never been around here so you wouldn't know."

"Don't worry, she's one of us, we'll take care of her," Mel said draping an arm over Katylina's shoulders.

"Please, call me Katy," she giggled. "Katylina's a bit of a mouthful."

"So where are you from?" Fred asked as Ron ordered a laughing suit of armour to shut up while Harry and Andrew hoisted Neville out of the step.

"Well, I was born in San Francisco, but of course it's now San Fransokyo," Katy answered.

"Oh my God, you were there when the San Andreas Fault ruptured?" Hermione asked.

"No, we went on vacation a week before it happened, but our dog was drowned by the tsunami," Katy answered, a little sadly.

"Um, explanation?" Ron asked.

"What do you know about tectonic plates?" Andrew asked back, Ron said he knew nothing. "Well, in simplest terms, the largest earthquake in history was about six years ago, the earth over the San Andreas Fault ripped open and part of California split away from the rest of the United States."

"Ouch," Ginny hissed.

"Between the earthquake and the resulting tsunami, nearly two and a half million people lost their lives." Andrew finished.

"Mhmm, and then Tokyo sent engineers, builders and everything needed to rebuild," Katy continued as they started walking again. "As a token of thanks, San Francisco renamed itself San Fransokyo."

"It's a beautiful place to visit, a perfect mix of American and Japanese architecture." Hermione gushed. "I went there with my parents for two weeks before I went to the World Cup."

Just as Hermione finished her sentence, they arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Password?" she asked.

"Balderdash." George answered. "A Prefect downstairs told me."

The Fat Lady swung forwards, revealing a hole in the wall and the Gryffindor common room on the other side, they filed through the hole, enjoying the warmth of the fire. Hermione muttered something about 'slave labour' and stormed off up to the girl's dormitory, Mel and Ginny bid the boys goodnight and had Katy follow them up to bed.

The boys followed suit, heading up to their dormitory and climbing into their beds, which had been made nice and toasty by warming pans. Ron made one last mention that he might go for the tournament and Andrew let out a tired sigh.

"I'd rather you didn't," he said. "I'd end up jumping in to save your ass every time I thought you were in danger."

Harry snorted at the mental image that conjured. "He's right Ron, and Hogwarts would get disqualified!"

All six boys in the room chuckled together and then went silent as they all drifted off to sleep.

 **Well, that's all until Mayday, hope you enjoyed how I've managed to tie Big Hero 6 in for later chapters. Please leave a review (be nice) and I'll see you next month.**


	5. New Arrivals

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially most of the characters in this story.**

 **Just to give a fair warning, this story is going to be going on a hiatus, partly because I'm struggling to write chapter 6, but mostly because recent events have severely upset me and robbed me of the will to write … among other things.**

Chapter 5 – New Arrivals

The next morning was still cloudy, but at least it wasn't heaving it down with rain and the thunderstorm had blown over. At breakfast, Harry and his friends were looking through their timetables, Hermione agreed to help Katy get to all her classes since their timetables were identical, while a little further down the table, Fred, George and Lee Jordan were plotting how to get themselves into the tournament.

"Today's not bad," Ron commented, "outside all morning." He was running his finger down the Monday column of his timetable. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures … dammit, we're still with the Slytherins!"

"Hey, they're not _all_ bad!" Andrew complained, referring to his life-long friend Jax and their group's growing friendship with Draco.

"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, letting his head fall onto the table with a light bump.

"Don't like the subject?" Katy giggled at Harry.

"The professor keeps predicting his death, got old after five lessons last year," Mel explained.

"You should have given it up like we did," Ginny said to the boys, referring to herself and Hermione.

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda," Andrew sighed. "To be honest I'm amazed they let you drop it Ginny, Hermione I get because she had too many subjects to cope with, but you didn't."

"Guess I'm just lucky, I thought that the worst Professor McGonagall would do is say 'no'." Ginny said with a shrug.

"Maybe it's not too late for us!" Ron piped up.

"You're not allowed to," Hermione said as she buttered herself some toast. "You passed your end of year exam in the subject so you have to keep studying it until you take your O.W.L."

"I see you're eating again," Ron replied, sagging in his seat a little. "Hungry?"

"I decided there are better ways to make a stand for elf rights." she answered haughtily.

Ron grinned. "And you were hungry."

"Mostly Mel wouldn't stop badgering me last night," Hermione sent a mock glare across the table.

"You're welcome." Mel said in a sing-song voice.

She was almost drowned out by the rustling of hundreds of wings as the mail arrived, there were ooh's and ah's from the guest Jedi as they saw at least a hundred owls flying in through the open windows.

"Ooh that's amazing!" Katy exclaimed. "The mail at Durmstrang just comes out of the fireplace."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you've been staring at the fire all morning." Mel commented, Katy nodded and looked a little disappointed.

"I was hoping for a letter from my parents, but we don't have an owl," she explained. Andrew frowned in thought and said he'd be back as he got up and walked up to the teachers table.

Harry smiled as Hedwig and Snowfire both glided down and landed on his shoulders as Andrew came back. "Hey boy, I've got a job for you," the Padawan explained, taking a small box and tying it to his owl's leg. "Where do you live Katy?"

She frowned at him. "Why do you ask?"

"Because Snowfire needs to know where to take this Holo-Comm for your parents." Andrew explained.

"Aww that's so sweet," Mel cooed, turning to Katy. "We use Hologram Communicators in the Order to communicate with each other all over the world, Andrew's going to send one to your parents so you can call them while you're here."

"Oh, thank you Andrew!" Katy cried, giving Snowfire the address. He hooted and gave Hedwig an affectionate nip before taking off and soaring out the window.

"He's fast, but I wouldn't bother trying to call the device he's carrying for at least three days." Andrew said distantly.

With breakfast over, they all headed for the greenhouses, most of their classmates had chosen to skirt around all the tents the Jedi were staying in, but Andrew led his friends right through the middle of them, offering a few passing low fives as they went while one or two of the younger knights called out that they should be jogging to keep fit.

In Greenhouse Three, they were shown some truly ugly plants. They looked like giant black slugs which stood straight up from the soil, quivering slightly. Each of the plants, Bubotubers, had at least a dozen shiny swellings on them, each swelling looked like it was full of liquid.

Professor Sprout gave them the instruction to burst the swellings and collect the pus while wearing their dragon hide gloves.

"What a lovely way to start the day," Andrew said with false cheer. "Popping plant pimples!"

Katy giggled as she started pulling on her gloves. Her giggles stopped and her face became a grimace as she started squeezing her first Bubotuber, and Andrew's face lit up with an idea. "Professor, do you mind if I try something a little unorthodox?" he asked.

Intrigued, Professor Sprout gave him a nod, Andrew smiled as he pulled a pokéball from his belt. "Scyther, go." he said simply, just tapping the button on the ball rather than throwing it. Once the Scyther had finished materialising, Andrew held a bottle near his first plant and held one of the swellings in a light grip. "Scyther, do you think you could poke a hole in this for me?" the bug took a close look and gave his trainer a nod, saying his name as he did so.

He lifted one of his blades up and carefully pressed the tip into the swelling until it started to leak, Andrew then squeezed gently to open up the hole and thus managed to capture all the swelling's fluid without spilling a drop.

"Good boy Scyther," Andrew praised as he gave the bug a stroke on his head, Scyther smiled and leaned into his trainer's hand. "Let's keep going, we'll be done in no time."

"I'm not sure if that's doing it right, Andrew." Mel said, a little upset that her fellow Padawan was technically getting help.

"Way I see it, the job was to make sure we don't spill any, if we just squeeze these things then pus is gonna fly everywhere!" Andrew reasoned, Professor Sprout agreed and pointed out that there were knives in a cupboard that the class could use.

Andrew had done three plants in the time it took anyone else to do one, and not a drop spilt. "You did great Scyther," Andrew said as he took off his gloves, giving the massive bug a hug, "wanna help everyone else?" Scyther nodded and Andrew led him around the room. By the end of the lesson there were about twenty half-pint bottled filled with pus.

Sprout explained that Madam Pomfrey could use the fluid had many uses, one of which was a cure for acne, one of the Hufflepuff girls, Hannah Abbott, commented on someone who had tried to curse her pimples off just as the bell announced the end of the lesson.

As the class got to the steps into the school it split in two, Hufflepuff students going into the castle to attend a Transfiguration lesson and Gryffindors heading towards the Forbidden Forest where Hagrid's Hut stood. As they passed the tents, they saw dozens of young Padawans, each with their lightsabers ignited, performing the same swaying motions. "Callisthenics," Mel explained as the Padawans all performed the same twirling strike, pirouetting through the air to slap their blade onto the ground.

Their attention was drawn away from the Jedi by a small explosion coming from Hagrid's Hut. "Mornin'," called the huge man called with a wave, his dog Fang was trying to pull on his leash to investigate a box, which had been the source of the explosion.

Hagrid told the Gryffindors that they would be waiting for the Slytherins before they started their study of 'Blast-Ended Skrewts', which appeared to be shell-less lobsters with a birth defect, they were pale, slimy, had legs sticking out everywhere and no visible head. Kind of like a Tiberium creature from Command and Conquer.

"On'y jus' hatched," Hagrid explained like a proud father. "So yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"And why would we _want_ to raise them?" demanded Aeron McCarthy as the Slytherins arrived.

"Why would your parents want to raise you?" Jax shot back, cutting off Crabbe and Goyle mid-snigger as the Gryffindors laughed at McCarthy's expense.

"There are just some questions in life that have no answer," Andrew sighed with a shrug.

McCarthy scowled at the Jedi. "I _meant_ ," he sneered, "what do they _do_? What's the _point_ of them?"

"So did we," Jax dead-panned, causing Andrew to crease up with laughter.

The distraction of the two Jedi allowed Hagrid time to come up with an answer. "Tha's next lesson McCarthy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today."he admitted that he had never encountered these creatures before so it was a learning experience for him too. He directed them to a table holding ant eggs and frog livers and some grass snake.

So it was an almost completely uneventful class trying to feed a creature that didn't seem to have a head. Dean Thomas got slightly burned as the Skrewt he was trying to feed blasted off and caught his finger.

Lavender Brown complained, not for the first time during the lesson, in disgust when she noticed that her Skrewt had a sting and Hagrid explained that the males had stings while the females had suckers on their heads.

"They're starting to remind me of Weedle," Andrew said absent-mindedly, earning a few looks from the Slytherins.

"What?" demanded Pansy Parkinson.

"Show 'em, babe," Jax said to Mel with a light touch of his elbow, she smiled and pulled out a pokéball, it burst open in her hand and the white beam of light materialised into the form of a brown worm with eight body segments, two tiny pink feet on all but two of the segments. At its tail there was a small sting and on its head sat two beady little black eyes, a large pink nose and a savage-looking spike.

"Weedle?" it asked, tilting it head to one side, at a quick glance it could have been mistaken for a Skrewt, only more defined. Seeing that it was, in every way, a bug, some of the girls screamed and ran to hide behind Hagrid.

"Oh honestly, it's just a worm!" Hermione cried in exasperation as Mel called her pokémon back to its pokéball.

After McCarthy managed to get scratched by a sting, he started grumbling about the Shrewts being disgusting creatures that had no use.

"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful." Hermione snapped at him.

"Yeah, Dragon's Blood has twelve different uses, but you wouldn't want a dragon as a pet, would you?" Mel added.

"Speak for yourself!" Andrew and Jax chuckled out in harmony.

"Well, at least they're small," Rom commented as they climbed the steps heading for lunch.

"For now," Hermione sighed, "I've got the feeling that once Hagrid's figured out what they eat they'll be six feet long!"

"Well, that won't matter if they turn out to cure sea sickness or something, will it?" Ron teased, grinning.

"You know full well that I only said that to shut McCarthy up!" she snapped back, adding that she really thought that McCarthy had a point.

"In other news, not seen you since the World Cup riot, what happened?" Andrew asked, turning to Draco.

"No surprises, my father was one of the rioters," Draco answered. "One of you apparently is the reason he had a broken cheekbone, and the other stabbed my mother in her shoulder."

Andrew and Jax stopped dead, causing Harry and Ron to crash into the from behind. "They were the ones levitating the Roberts family?" Jax asked, incredulous. Draco nodded sadly.

"Wow, don't take this the wrong way Drake, but I'm sorry I didn't break more of the S.O.B." Andrew added.

"None taken, I agree with you," Draco answered, causing Phoebe to stop too, having been accidentally eavesdropping. She looked at Draco in shock before shaking herself out of her thoughts and stalking off to the Hufflepuff table.

They split up, Draco and Jax to the Slytherin table and the rest to the Gryffindor table. Elizabeth Payne came up and handed her brother some parchment, saying he needed to write home to their parents. "Um, problem, I just sent Snowfire to California this morning."

"I've got an owl too, but I sent her home this morning too, you can borrow her when she gets back." she answered and skipped off to join her classmates.

"Am I the only one who feels awkward having a sibling at school?" Andrew asked.

"Yep," Ron laughed, pointing to Ginny.

"You probably feel awkward because you barely know her, she's three years younger than you and you've seen her all of what, seven? Eight times in her life?" Mel added.

"That might be it, hell the last time I saw her was Christmas in ninety-two." Andrew answered.

"Woah, Hermione slow down before you choke!" Harry exclaimed as he noticed Hermione wolfing down lamb chops and potatoes.

"Are you trying to make yourself sick for elf rights!?" Ron asked.

"No," Hermione said, pausing between bites. "I just want to get to the library."

"You're kidding." Ginny choked out around a piece of carrot. "On our first day back? We haven't even gotten any homework yet!"

Hermione just shrugged and went back to eating like she hadn't eaten in a week. When she'd cleared her plate she said she'd see them at dinner and was gone.

"Um, how am I going to get to Arithmancy?" Katy asked. "Should I follow her?"

"No need, I'm in that class," Ginny answered, "I'll take you."

They finished their lunches and split up, Ginny taking Katy to Arithmancy while Andrew, Mel, Harry and Ron took off running for Divination.

They made it to the tower on time, climbing the ladder into the warm, dark, perfumed room. Everything was circular, the room, the tables, the pouffes, only the chairs weren't round. The room was bathed in a warm red glow as every lamp was draped in a red shawl.

Harry jumped a mile out of his skin when Professor Trelawney spoke from right behind him, pulling her usual bull about how Harry's fears would come to pass and sooner than he thought. Ron and Mel rolled their eyes as they made their way to the back of the class, trying to make as much distance as they could.

Trelawney stated the class by announcing that they were to start studying the stars, rambling on about how they could predict the future. Andrew's thoughts drifted back to their first year when two centaurs predicted that Harry would die in the Forbidden Forest at Voldemort's hands. Ron then nudged Harry awake as Trelawney said that Harry was born under Saturn in mid-winter, which explained Harry's hair colour and the tragedy he was famous for.

"No, I was born in July." Harry snapped back, growing tired of her act. Andrew surreptitiously rubbed his right shoulder at the mention of the word 'tragedy' but nobody noticed.

They were given the task of working out where the planets were at the time of their birth, which was mostly tedious because they had to keep checking timetables and charts and doing a fair bit of maths.

Lavender caused a slight commotion when she thought she'd found an extra planet, which turned out to be Uranus. Ron asked Lavender if he could look at Uranus, making it obvious that he was making a dirty joke, and Trelawney got annoyed and set them a harsh piece of homework.

"A detailed analysis of the way the planetary movements in the coming month will affect you, with reference to your personal chart," she snapped, Andrew wasn't looking at her when she said it and he thought for a split second that McGonagall was setting the homework. "I want it ready to hand in next Monday, and no excuses!"

They met up with Hermione, Ginny and Katy on the way to the Great Hall for dinner, where Hermione boasted that Professor Vector hadn't given them any homework at all. They bumped into Jax and Draco while queuing to get in to dinner, where the two Slytherin boys gave Ron a heads up that his Dad was in the paper and McCarthy had a copy.

"What's happened now?" Ron asked, concerned.

"Something to do with our new Defence teacher, policemen and aggressive dustbins," Jax answered.

"Your Dad had to modify some memories after Moody raised a false alarm," Draco elaborated, "but the story makes it sound like he got into a fight or something, doesn't even get his name right _and_ mentions the flying car he owned two years ago."

"Oh great, and McCarthy just can't _wait_ to tell me all about the story, right?" Ron said scathingly.

Just as he said that, McCarthy started shouting for Ron's attention, Andrew responded by taking his lightsaber and throwing it up, over the crowd and down onto McCarthy's head while he was reading.

"Nice shot!" Ginny praised.

"Wait for it." Andrew muttered.

"You'll regret that, Mudblood!" McCarthy shouted as he fired a curse at the Jedi, picking up the lightsaber and going to press the activation button where there was a roar of rage and a loud bang echoing through the hall.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" bellowed Professor Moody as he pointed his wand at a pitch black ferret, floundering around where McCarthy was standing with Andrew's saber next to it. Moody limped his way down the stairs, into a crowd of silent, terrified students.

He limped up to Harry and his friends, his black eye on the Jedi while his magical eye was staring out the back of his head. "Did he get you?" he demanded of Andrew, Andrew shook his head and pointed a thumb over his shoulder, there was a black mark on the wall right behind the boy's head.

"I leaned out of the way, I may be unarmed but I'm still agile." Andrew explained.

"LEAVE IT!" Moody bellowed, causing Andrew's friends to stare at him in confusion, Andrew and Mel leaned over to look behind the ex-Auror to see Crabbe about to pick up the ferret. They had suspected before, but now they were positive that Moody's magical eye could see out of the back of his head.

Moody limped over to the trio, the ferret squealing in fear and trying to run for the dungeons. Moody wasn't having it, he pointed his wand at the ferret and it went airborne, shooting straight up and falling hard, straight back down onto the marble floor. "I don't like people who attack when their opponent is unarmed," growled Moody, kicking Andrew's saber back to its owner, the Padawan picked it up and clipped it back onto his belt.

"Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do!" the ferret slammed into the floor with each word Moody said, bouncing higher and higher. "Never – do – that – again!"

"Professor Moody!" cried a shocked voice, all heads turning to see Professor McGonagall on the stairs with her arms loaded with books. "What _are_ you doing?" she demanded as her eyes followed the ferret's progress.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," Moody answered casually, "just teaching."

"Teach- Moody, is _that_ a student?" she shrieked, dropping her books.

"Yep," Moody replied, sounding completely carefree.

"NO!" McGonagall cried, dropping her books, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand. Harry, Ginny and the Jedi gathered the scattered books and held them ready for her as the ferret turned back into McCarthy, his black hair all over the place and his face bright red. He got to his feet, wincing in pain.

"Moody, we _never_ use Transfiguration as a punishment!" McGonagall said weakly, like she was trying to explain something to a four-year-old. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might have mentioned it," Moody said, scratching a scar on his jaw without concern. "I just thought..."

"We give detentions, Moody!" McGonagall exploded. "Or speak to the offender's Head of house!"

"I'll do that, then," Moody said, completely unfazed as he glared at McCarthy as the boy muttered something. "Oh yeah?" Moody growled as he advanced on the boy, a clunk echoing around the silent hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy … you tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son … you tell him that from me … now, your Head of house'll be Snape, will it?"

Nobody heard McCarthy's reply. "Another old friend, I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape." he grabbed McCarthy by his upper arm and dragged him towards the dungeon, his growl echoing behind him as he went.

McGonagall starred anxiously after them before she went to collect the books Harry and his friends had picked up for her. "Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to the others as they moved along into the Great Hall.

"Why?" Draco asked, looking a little confused as he followed.

"I want to fix that in my memory forever," Ron answered with a dreamy look on his face. "Aeron McCarthy, the amazing bouncing ferret..."

The others all burst out laughing at those words. "Yoda, I wish I had a camera that works around here!" Jax complained, wiping a tear from his eye. Just then, his game device started beeping.

"Oh, another capture at dinner," Katy said with a smile. "Is this gonna happen every night?"

"Possible, there's plenty of players in here." Mel answered as Jax homed in on his target.

"So how does all of this work exactly?" Ginny asked.

"Well ..." Andrew started, trying to piece together how to word it. "You know the game 'rock, paper, scissors'?" Ginny, Ron and Katy nodded. "Well, imagine a version of that game with about fifteen different options."

"Wow, that sounds complicated." Ron cut in.

"Maybe, but I'll just stick to the 'starters'," Andrew carried on. "In the games and the cartoon, every trainer starts by picking one of three pokémon. Bulbasaur is a grass-type, Charmander is a fire-type and Squirtle is a water-type. You pick one and then track down and catch the rest."

"Grass absorbs water," Mel continued, "water douses fire and fire burns grass."

"Rock, paper and scissors," Katy nodded.

"I picked a Bulbasaur," Andrew explained. "Mel I remember you picked Charmander, but you've been playing with Jax more than I have … that sounded _so_ wrong … which one did he pick?"

"I _did_ pick a Charmander, and Jax picked a Squirtle," Mel finished, stuck between giggling and gagging at Andrew's comment, just as Jax's game started ringing, he pressed his button and a white pony appeared in front of him, it had brown eyes and it's mane and tail were both made of bright red and orange flames.

"Awesome, I've been hoping for one of these!" Jax exclaimed as he pulled a pokéball from his belt.

"Aww that's so sweet, what is it?" Ginny asked.

"Ponyta, the pony pokémon," Andrew recited from memory. "When it evolves it'll be one of the fasted creatures on the planet."

"Evolves?" Ron asked as Jax's Squirtle started blowing bubbles at the flaming pony.

"As a pokémon gains experience, it eventually gets to a high enough level to evolve, becoming bigger, stronger and generally more powerful." Hermione explained as she finished eating. "I'm off to the library again, see you later."

"Pokeball, go!" Jax shouted as he hurled an empty pokéball at the panting pony, the poor thing was exhausted from taking water-type attacks, it didn't put up a struggle as it was captured and the pokéball, instead of returning to Jax's hand, glowed bright white and vanished.

"What just happened?" Katy asked, confused.

"When a trainer has a full team of six pokémon, any more they catch go into storage." Harry answered. "I saw one episode where Ash caught a Krabby when he had a full team, that's pretty much all I know on Pokémon," he added sheepishly.

Fred, George and Lee soon sat next to Ginny, singing the praises of Moody's Defence class. "He _knows_ man," Lee said, almost whispering with admiration.

"Knows what?" Ron asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"Knows what it's like to be out there _doing_ it," said George impressively.

"Fighting the Dark Arts?" Andrew asked.

"Yep," Fred answered.

"I won't count myself too impressed, I've been taught lightsaber technique by people who fought hand to hand with Sith Lords, and trust me, after seeing what Death Eaters could do, I think the Sith might have been worse." Andrew stated.

"Sith?" Katy asked, having never heard the word before.

"Don't ask so close to bed time," Mel said sharply, shuddering violently. "I wouldn't want you to have nightmares."

"Trust me, Moody's seen it _all_!" George reassured them.

Ron dived into his back for his timetable. "Aww _man_ , we haven't got him 'til Thursday!" he complained as he threw his timetable back into his bag.

The next two days were a flurry of activity for the Jedi as new pokémon kept appearing all over the school, Snape was apparently furious when a seven-year-old Padawan politely knocked on his classroom door to ask permission to find the creature he was tracking, which turned out to be a Rattata, a rat pokémon, causing a panic from all the muggle-born girls in Snape's class.

There was also nearly an incident when Harry and his friends had their first Potions class, right after Snape gave Neville a detention for melting his sixth cauldron.

"Payne, take that glove off, it's not part of the school uniform." he ordered Andrew, causing Mel and Jax to freeze in fear for their fellow Jedi.

"I'm sorry Sir, I can't," Andrew replied calmly, causing Snape to glare at the boy.

"Excuse me?" he said in a dangerously quiet voice.

"Professor," Andrew turned the heat on his cauldron down so his potion could simmer, "could I speak with you outside, please?"

Perplexed by this request, Snape motioned for Andrew to go first, and followed the Padawan, slamming the door shut behind them. Whispered conversations broke out at once.

"Have you noticed that Andrew's been wearing that glove for a while now?" Ron asked quietly.

"I have, what's so hard about taking it off?" Harry asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione asked, her voice saying that she'd figured something out.

"No, it isn't," Draco drawled.

"Well, it's not my place to say, but I'm betting Mel and Jax know everything," Hermione looked to the two Jedi who nodded mutely. "Andrew will tell us when he's..." just then, Snape banged his way back into the room, Andrew following close behind.

"You can keep it on for now, Payne, but I'll be checking with the Headmaster tonight." Snape snapped.

"I can't ask more than that Sir," Andrew said sadly. For a brief moment, Snape almost looked apologetic and even sympathetic.

The rest of the lesson was completely uneventful, except for Snape telling people to stop looking at Andrew and get on with their work.

Neville returned from his detention that night on the verge of collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads, Professor McGonagall had been on her way to talk to Andrew and helped Neville into a chair before having the Jedi leave the common room with her.

"I bet Moody's the reason Snape's being so much of a twat," Mel growled as she worked on her Potions homework.

"He seems scared of him," Harry mused. "Normally he just dislikes the Defence teacher because he wants that job." he added for Katy's benefit.

"You mean he's normally an asshole?" she asked, the others nodded. "And lately he's just being a total dick!"

"Too bloody right!" Ron laughed, Ginny giggled and Hermione looked a little disapproving.

Andrew came back in, saying he was tired and heading to bed, he'd written his letter to his parents that morning and had seemed emotionally drained all day.

"Is he going to be okay?" Katy asked the others, knowing that they'd known Andrew for longer.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure," Mel answered. "I've known him longer than anyone in this room, and I've never seen him like this. He copes well with most things that make other people break, but he's always taken death hard."

"Is it true that the Jedi …" Hermione started, searching for the right words, "… 'feel' death, like part of them dies whenever someone close by dies?"

Mel nodded. "The likes of me and Andrew feel weakened by it, Jax and his mother can let it fuel themselves, like an energy drink, it's what makes them good Assassins."

"And the Sith?" Katy ask, still curious about why Andrew and Mel wouldn't talk about them.

"They _feed_ off death!" Mel hissed. "It's like the air they breathe."

Katy didn't say anything about that, her jaw simply dropped.

Everyone of the Gryffindor fourth-years was so looking forward to Moody's first lesson that they rushed through their lunch and queued up at the classroom door early. Hermione turned up just in time for the door to be opened, announcing that she'd been in the library again.

Harry led the way as he and his friends rushed to the front of the class, the seven of them took up the entire front row as they took their seats and pulled out their copies of 'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection'.

The class was totally silent as they waited, they heard the clunking of Moody's stump as his office door opened and he stepped into the classroom, he ordered the class to put their books away and took the register. His black eye drifted down the page and he called a name, then his blue eye swivelled to look at the person who answered, when he was done he stepped away from his desk and stood front and centre.

"Right then, I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures – you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas and Werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent, some even glad to hear that Lupin wanted to keep his replacement up to date on what they already knew.

"But you're behind," Moody declared, creating a few shocked stares, " _very_ behind, on dealing with _curses_!"

"( _Uh oh,_ )" Andrew thought.

"So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark..."

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out, interrupting Moody and looking horrified that he had.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron, who looked like he was bracing himself to be turned into a ferret, but after a moment Moody smiled, making his scarred face look even more grotesque.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago, I'm grateful for that … yeah, I'm only staying for the one year, as a favour to Dumbledore, one year and then to my quiet retirement."

"What's 'quiet retirement'?" Andrew asked, feigning stupidity.

Moody barked out a laugh of agreement and clapped his gnarled hands together. "So – straight into it. Curses."

He explained how curses come in many strengths and many forms, that he was only supposed to teach his fourth-years the counter-curses and be done with it, but he and Dumbledore agreed that they were made of sterner stuff and he was going to demonstrate the most illegal curses in the book.

After he told Lavender off for showing Parvati her horoscope under the table, he went on. "So … do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by magical law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye stayed focused on Lavender. "Well, my Dad told me about one," Ron said, lowering his hand. "Is it called the Imperius curse or something?"

"Oh yeah," Moody said appreciatively as he nodded. "Anyone working at the Ministry _would_ know that one. Gave the Ministry a _lot_ of trouble at one time." He limped over to his desk and took out a jar containing three large spiders, Katy squeaked next to Andrew and Ron stiffened. Moody reached into the jar and caught one of the spiders, it scuttled around on his hand as he held it out for the class to see. He pointed his wand at the spider and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider stopped running around and dived off Moody's hand, lowering itself down to the desk while swinging back and forth like a trapeze artist. It broke the thread by back-flipping down to the desk where it began doing a tap dance.

Everyone in the class was laughing, everyone except Moody and the two Jedi, who looked a little concerned for the spider.

"Think it's funny, do you?" Moody growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died almost right away. "Total control," Moody explained as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."

"That's a little sick, Sir." Mel growled.

"It is, years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius curse," Moody went on, everyone knew he was talking about the days when Voldemort was in power. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was just _saying_ they were being forced."

"Is it anything like a Jedi Mind Trick?" Andrew wondered aloud.

"There's an argument for that," Moody said casually. "Except that this curse works on even the strong minded, they just have a better chance to fight it off. And the Imperius curse _can_ be fought off, I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better to avoid being hit with it at all if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, making many of his students jump.

Moody asked if anyone knew any other curses, Hermione raised her hand, as did Neville surprisingly, he normally didn't volunteer information in any class other than Herbology.

"Yes?" Moody asked, looking at Neville with both eyes. Neville lowered his hand and named 'the Cruciatus curse'. "Your name's Longbottom?" Neville nodded and Moody grabbed the second spider. "The Cruciatus curse, needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea." he pointed his wand at the spider and said "Engorgio!"

The spider swelled until it was bigger than a tarantula. Ron almost screamed and shoved his chair back into the table behind, trying to get away from the spider in front of him. Moody pointed his wand at this spider and said "Crucio!"

At once three things happened, first the spider's legs bent in upon its body and it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking back and forth in obvious agony. Second Neville started gripping his desk so hard his knuckles turned white and he was shaking from head to toe. And third, Andrew and Mel both screamed in pain and started clawing at their heads. Mel toppled off her chair and onto the floor while Andrew doubled over onto his desk.

"STOP, STOP, STOP!" Andrew screamed, Moody raised his wand and the spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you to feel that," Moody said as he offered to help Mel back to her chair.

"That makes three of us," Andrew wheezed into the wood, still holding his aching head. "… felt that!"

Moody reduced the size of the spider and put it back in the jar. "Pain," he said softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus curse … that one was once very popular too."

"No doubt as an interrogation device." Mel groaned as she sat up straight.

"Exactly, now, does anyone know any others?" Moody asked, Hermione's hand was shaking as she raised it for the third time. "Yes?" Moody asked, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

Several people looked at her, uneasily, including Ron. Moody gave another slight, twisted smile. "Ah yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra … the 'killing' curse." He struggled to pull out the last spider, it seemed to know what was coming and was putting up a fight, he eventually trapped it and placed it on the desk. It tried to scuttle its way to freedom but Moody raised his wand and roared out the incantation, filling the room with a blinding flash of green light.

"Not nice," Moody said as he swept the dead spider off the desk. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

"Forgive me Sir, but you are slightly mistaken." Andrew said, holding up his hand. Moody raised an eyebrow and nodded his head for Andrew to continue. "I can't go into too much detail as it's technically classified. But a few months ago, I was almost the victim of that last curse, thankfully my lightsaber deflected it. Now I'm not going to say it 'blocked' the curse, but if a deflection saves your life it's done something, right?"

"I'll agree with that, do Jedi weapons often protect you from curses?" Moody asked, leaning on his desk with a curious look on his face.

"If it has a visible projectile, yes," Mel answered.

"Interesting, so a lightsaber will protect you from the Avada Kedavra, but not from the Imperius or Cruciatus curses," Moody clarified, the two Jedi nodded. "Well, Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it – you could all get your wands out now, point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nose-bleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it."

"Glad to hear that," Katy muttered, causing Moody's magical eye to swivel to her. She blushed a little and put her hand up. "Sir, if there's no counter-curse, why show it to us?"

"An important question, that needs to be asked," Moody growled in reply, he saw Andrew's hand up. "Got an answer Payne?"

"Yes Sir, we learn it early in the order," Andrew paused to take a breath. "The world can be an ugly place, you can either accept that fact or live in ignorance."

"Exactly, and personally I prefer you accept it, and you can't accept it until you know it's there. You've got to _know_ it's coming, you've got to appreciate what the worst is, _before_ you find yourself facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared again, making all but the Jedi jump again.

"Now … those three curses – Avada Kedavra, Imperius and Cruciatus – are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being, is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. Yes?" he paused as he noticed Mel's hand raised.

"Sir, does that mean if you used one on say … a Centaur," Mel picked the first magical creature that came to mind, "you'd get away with it?"

"As a matter of fact, you wouldn't. Using one on a human is an immediate life sentence without trial, but other cases would get you seen in court to determine the severity of your crime and the length of your sentence." Moody answered, impressed with the curiosity.

"Seems just a tad bit ..." Andrew paused, "… is 'racist' the right term? Or should I say spiciest?"

"You're right, it is, but I'm not here to debate our laws with you, I'm here to show you what your up against, and to teach you how to fight it. You need to be prepared, you need to be armed, but most of all, you need to practise.." Moody was interrupted by Ginny.

"Constant vigilance?" she asked, causing Moody to chuckle.

"Yes, Miss Weasley, constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Now, get out your quills and copy this down."

He spent the rest of the lesson lecturing on the three curses while his students took notes. Whenever he paused in his lecturing the room was totally silent save for the scratching of quills on parchment. Moody didn't stop his lecture until the bell rang to announce the end of lessons and the start of dinner, but it wasn't until they had left the room that people started to talk.

Andrew frowned a little at how people were talking about the second and third curse, but Hermione insisted that her friends speed up, Neville was standing away from the rest of the class, heading away from the Great Hall while everyone else was heading to dinner, he was leaning against the wall, shaking and pale.

"Are you alright Neville?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yes, I'm fine!" he said in an unusually high voice. "Very interesting dinner – I mean lesson – what's for eating?"

"Neville, what's wr.." Ginny stopped as Neville froze, all of them hearing the tell-tale sound of Moody's stump.

"It's alright, sonny," he growled gently to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on, we can have a nice cup of tea."

Neville looked terrified at the idea and looked to his classmates for help, Moody didn't notice as he turned to Harry. "Are you alright, Potter?"

"Yes," Harry answered, defiantly.

Moody's blue eye seemed to quiver as it surveyed Harry. "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe..."

"Professor, you're preaching to the choir," Andrew sighed. "Personally I'm annoyed that so few seemed to take the lesson seriously."

"You think so?" Moody growled.

"We know it, the way they were talking after they left the classroom, like it was some kind of spectacle!" Mel fumed.

"Well, maybe they'll see things differently after our next lesson," Moody growled. "Come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."

Neville looked pleadingly to his classmates as Moody took him away, nobody seemed brave enough to try and stop the ex-Auror from doing as he wished. Once Neville and Moody vanished around the corner, they started heading down for dinner, Hermione huffing that showing them those curses was too much too soon.

"Sorry so say it Hermione, but you guys really did _need_ that lesson," Andrew sighed. "You just got a taste of the kind of stuff we learned nearly ten _years_ ago."

"People can just be evil, and sometimes it's better to know just what they're capable of so you can learn how to protect yourself from it." Mel added. "I was six when I learned that lesson, and I lost my family in the same night."

"I was five and on my first mission with Master Cooper as his Padawan, trying to save an innocent girl from a serial rapist and murderer. Said dirt-bag shot me three times in the chest," Andrew told them. "Lucky for me the bullets passed right through me, my tissues leaked through the holes and kept me from bleeding to death in seconds. But the girl I was standing in front of took those same bullets, and one of them pierced her heart."

"Oh my God," Hermione gasped.

"She was dead before she hit the ground." Andrew took a deep shuddering breath as he tried not to let it get to him too much.

"That's the first time you ever had to deal with death," Katy said, rubbing his left shoulder sympathetically.

"Yep, and I've taken every life I've failed to save just as hard, it's my one weakness," Andrew answered.

"I take it every Jedi learns the hard truths of life early," Harry said, almost sounding like a question.

"Yes, you don't truly stay innocent for long in the Order," Mel told them, "the Dark Jedi learn sooner than others, being trained as assassins, they need to know what people are capable of, because sometimes they have to do unspeakable things themselves."

"Like my old Grandad," Andrew took over. "One of the best _Grey_ Jedi ever trained, one time he was having trouble getting to a drug lord he was assigned to kill, so he kidnapped his target's four-year-old daughter."

"That's sick!" Ron spat.

"Hey I didn't say I was proud of the guy!" Andrew shouted defensively. "But he never once failed a mission, except for the one that got him killed."

"Just before Andrew was born," Jax cut in, having heard the back end of the conversation. "His target was an African warlord, no family, no friends, no mistress. Literally nobody that could be used for bait, only option was to go through the middle of the warlord's forces."

"Records say he never got close." Andrew finished.

"Wait a minute, 'Grey' Jedi?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, pet peeve of mine," Andrew answered. "People call them 'dark' Jedi simply because they use the Dark Side more than the likes of me and Master Cooper."

"Technically there's no such thing as a 'dark' Jedi, unless you talk about the Sith." Mel added, looking apologetic. "The proper term is Grey Jedi, but try correcting the entire world when it's collectively using the wrong word."

"Think of it this way," Andrew started. "Jedi are white, Sith are black and Jax is the several shades of grey between the two, hence why he's a Grey Jedi."

"So what exactly is the difference between the three?" Katy asked.

"Well, the Jedi are bodyguards, diplomats and negotiators, who only kill if they _literally_ have no other choice," Mel explained.

"Grey Jedi, like me," Jax continued, perching himself on the Gryffindor table, "accept one simple fact, some times to save a thousand lives, you have to sacrifice one. Like Andrew's Granpa managed to kill one man and shut down an entire drug ring. Nobody who worked for that drug lord wanted to touch the trade again for fear of what might happen to them or their families."

"The Sith though," Andrew growled. "They're only interested in power and ruling over everyone else. They'll kill anyone they have to to gain power, and once they have it, they'll kill anyone who they see as a threat to that power."

Hermione had once again eaten quickly and excused herself to run off to the library, while Harry and the others went back to the Gryffindor common room to try and make a start on their homework.

On the way up Harry asked a question that was on his mind. "Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore get in trouble for letting us see the curses?"

"I doubt it, possibly for letting _us_ see them, given how young we are," Mel answered. "But I'd guess that as a teacher, Moody's licensed to demonstrate them to us in the safety of his classroom."

"Maybe suggesting that his entire class pull out their wands and cast the killing curse at him, _might_ have been going a little too far." Andrew quipped.

"Maybe," Ron chuckled. "Balderdash."

The Fat Lady swung open and allowed them into their common room, where Harry suggested they start on Divination, Ginny deciding to watch and see if she could help, as none of them seemed eager in the slightest.

The boys went up to their dormitory to fetch what they needed and found Neville on his bed, reading. He seemed better than before, though his eyes were a little red. When asked, Neville told them he was fine and that he was just reading a book Moody had lent him entitled 'Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties'.

"Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology." Neville said with a smile.

"That's the understatement of the century!" Andrew praised, trying to further lift his friend's spirits. Neville smiled and went back to reading.

The three boys collected their copies of 'Unfogging the Future' and made their way down to the common room.

"What kept you?" Mel asked.

"Just a brief chat with Nev, he's fine," Ron answered, grabbing some parchment and sitting down.

After an hour of work, they hadn't gotten very far, Ron's hair was standing on end, Harry was suffering from a headache and Andrew's Padawan braid had fallen loose.

"I haven't a clue what this lot's supposed to mean," Mel complained, Harry agreed with her as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You know," Ron said, putting down his quill, "I think it's time we went back to the old Divination standby."

"Make it up?" Harry and Andrew asked together.

"Yep." Ron answered, causing Ginny and Katy to giggle. Ron took up his quill again and dipped it in his ink pot. "Next Monday," he said slowly as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up at the others. "You know her – just put loads of misery, she'll lap it up!"

Ginny burst out laughing at that as Mel and Katy frowned. "This feels dishonest, but I don't need the detention." Andrew said as he started a fresh sheet of parchment and started writing about how bad his life was going to be for the next month.

The four of them spent the next hour firing increasingly horrifying predictions back and forth, Ginny and Katy becoming more and more entertained as the antics continued, the common room slowly emptying as they worked.

"What?" Andrew suddenly demanded, drawing attention to Crookshanks as he seemed to glare at Andrew. "So I'm faking it, it's Divination, ninety-nine percent of it is bollocks and bullshit!"

Ron sniggered at the Jedi as Crookshanks dived off the arm of the chair and darted off. After a minute, Fred and George bid the fourth-years goodnight and went to bed, shortly after, the portrait hole opened and Hermione entered the common room, carrying a sheaf of parchment and a rattling box.

"Hello," she said, "I've just finished!"

"So have I!" Ron called triumphantly as he threw down his quill. Hermione sat down, placing her belongings in an empty chair. and looked over his work.

"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said, giving Ron a disapproving look.

"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Ron yawned.

"It's obvious you've made this up you know," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"Come on Hermione, it's Trelawney we're talking about here," Mel half-snapped.

"What's in the box?" Harry asked, changing the subject.

"Funny you should ask," Hermione answered.

It turned out that all of Hermione's time in the library lately had been researching the history of House Elves. She'd started a charity of sorts to try and effect change in their rights. Ron tried to tell her slowly, loudly and clearly, that House Elves liked to be 'enslaved' and Hermione ploughed on with how she expected all her friends to follow her example.

"Hermione," Andrew started, being diplomatic, "much as I don't like how Elves seem to be treated as living beings, we only know of two cases, out of possibly millions."

"What's your point?" Hermione snapped, not liking the lack of enthusiasm.

"One, that you're trying to force us to help you, you haven't asked," Mel said calmly.

"Two, you're listening to all the bad reviews, I'll admit that we've yet to come across a House Elf that was happy with their life and work." Andrew continued. "Why not try meeting an Elf that likes what their doing, and keep an open mind while you're talking to them. You get me a 'happy' House Elf who says they're a slave, and I'll help you free them."

After a moment's pause, Hermione stopped frowning. "You're right, I didn't ask, I just assumed you would help, I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Katy said, "just don't hate me when I say my parents have a House Elf."

Hermione almost glared at her but stopped herself. "Would it be possible for me to talk with your Elf?"

"I can ask my parents, but I can't promise anything." Katy said.

"I have a question," Ginny pipped up.

"What is it?" Mel asked.

"Are we talking about working for Elf rights, or are we talking about trying to convince them to … go on strike or something?" Ginny asked.

"I want Elves to have the same rights as we do," Hermione started, "but from what I've seen in my research, Elves today are born to Elves who already serve wizards, are raised by parents who are slaves, and are essentially brainwashed from birth to behave the same way their parents do."

"So we're talking education then," Andrew suggested.

"Yes." Hermione said, beaming.

"Then we're wasting time on the adults." Mel pointed out. "It's just too late for them, we need to target the youngsters."

"That's a good point," Ron said, Harry broke up the conversation by letting out a loud yawn.

"Time for bed I think." Andrew said, yawning as well.

"Yes, night all." Hermione said, picking up her parchment and badges and heading up to the girl's dormitory.

The next morning at breakfast, Harry got a letter from Sirius. "Oh, he remembered the letter I sent him in the summer about my scar ..." Harry read aloud, "he says I should talk to Dumbledore about it."

"Good advice," Hermione commented.

"Anything else?" Andrew asked.

"Just an update on Mum and Dad, they've contacted the Ministry to try and get custody over me, they've contacted my Aunt and Uncle and have gladly filled in the paperwork." Harry summarised.

"Well it's a good thing that they did, but it probably won't make things go any quicker." Mel sighed.

Harry didn't feel like he had much of a chance to speak with the Headmaster as his lessons were becoming more demanding, as was his homework.

The most gruelling lessons were Moody's classes, after lecturing them on the Unforgivable Curses, he then announced that he was going to spend a few practical lessons subjecting them one by one to the Imperius curse to see if they could resist its effects.

Hermione was _not_ happy about it. "B-but you said its illegal, Professor," she stammered while Moody cleared the desks to one side of the room. "You said t-to use it against another human was-"

"After how many of you reacted after the last lesson, I spoke to Dumbledore, he agreed that you might appreciate what you're up against more if you felt what it was like." Moody growled as his magical eye fixated itself on Hermione. "However, if you'd rather learn the hard way – when someone is making you strangle one of your friends – fine by me. You're excused, off you go."

He pointed a gnarled finger at the door and Hermione muttered something about not meaning she wanted to leave.

"Look at it this way, Hermione, he's not likely to make us do anything drastic, too many witnesses!" Andrew joked, causing Moody to bark out one of his sharp laughs.

"How would you like to go first, Padawan?" Moody offered, motioning for the Jedi to step into the middle of the room.

"Bring it on," Andrew growled, wrapping his right hand around his left knuckles and making them crack.

"Shouldn't you crack the others, even them up?" Seamus asked.

"… No," Andrew answered, shaking his head.

Moody lifted his wand and pointed it at Andrew's chest. "Imperio!"

Andrew felt it at once, he felt light headed and carefree, he just stood there, looking incredibly relaxed and only dimly aware that he wasn't alone, then he heard Moody's voice in his mind.

"( _Remove your glove … remove your glove..._ )"

Andrew started to reach for his glove and Hermione almost swallowed her hands as she gasped. Andrew slowly pulled at the tip of each finger of his glove, loosening it from his hand, before his fingers suddenly clenched.

'( _No! I can't, they'll see!_ )' he screamed at the voice in his head.

"( _Remove it, NOW!_ )"

Instead of doing as the voice said, Andrew's subconscious lashed out and sent a Force push at Moody, sending him flying back and through his desk.

"Oh jeez, are you alright, Professor?" Andrew cried out as the effect of the curse wore off instantly.

Moody groaned as he was helped to his feet by Dean and Seamus. "I'm fine, Payne. If anything, I'm impressed, sometimes attacking your attacker is the best way to defend yourself."

"I'm sorry, Sir," Andrew groaned, burying his face in his hands. "I could've killed you!"

"What's important is that you fought and you found a way to beat it, ten points to Gryffindor!" Moody announced, calling Dean to go next.

The next few minutes were a stream of students doing one ludicrous thing after another, until Harry was called forward. Under the influence of the curse he'd bent his knees, preparing to leap into a desk, but instead chose to run head long into it, which pleased Moody immensely.

"Y'know, I wonder if our practise in telepathy has helped," Mel mused, Moody looked at her sharply.

"You practise telepathy?" he asked. "You and who else?"

"Me, Mel, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Jax and Draco," Andrew listed. "And I recently started teaching Katy." He added.

"Hmm, I wonder if the rest of you would be able to fight it," Moody mused, he decided to call forth Hermione, who just stood in the middle of the room, muttering to herself, until eventually she shouted 'no' at the top of her lungs.

Moody then spent the rest of the lesson going through Harry and his friends one by one until each of them could throw off the curse as soon as Moody cast it. He set homework for the others to visit the library and read up on the subject of telepathy before next lesson, where the rest of the class would be subjected to the curse.

Most of the fourth-years were complaining about their increased workload which, as McGonagall explained during a Transfiguration lesson, was due to them taking their Ordinary Wizarding Levels the following year.

"But that's almost two years away!" Dean complained to his Head of house.

"Be that as it may, Thomas, believe me, you need all the preparation you can get!" McGonagall snapped back at him, pointing out that Hermione was still the only person in the room who could turn a hedgehog into a pincushion that didn't mind being pinned.

"I'm close!" Mel half-shouted. "Mine only squeaks a little when you stick a pin into it."

In Divination, Trelawney was over the moon at Harry's and Ron's horrific horoscopes, but then she asked them to do another for October. In History of Magic, they were set an essay two weeks in a row. Snape had them researching antidotes, with the threat that someone might get poisoned. Flitwick had them all reading extra books to prepare for upcoming lessons in Summoning Charms.

"Professor?" Andrew piped up, raising his hand. "I've already read the books on this list."

"Ah yes, and you have an eidetic memory," Flitwick squeaked. "Perhaps you could help your fellow classmates with their reading."

"Actually, there _is_ a project that Master Cooper and Professor Dumbledore asked me to help with, it almost slipped my mind." Andrew answered.

"Oh yes, I know the one, well you now have a little free time to work on it," Flitwick squeaked.

Even Hagrid was adding to their workload. Since the Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing so fast and nobody had figured out what they ate, if anything, he suggested to his fourth-years that they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to watch what the Skrewts got up to after dark and take notes.

"I will not!" McCarthy shouted, having had enough by now. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons!"

Hagrid had a smile on his face, which faded fast. "Yeh'll do wha' yer told," he growled, "or I'll be takin' a leaf outta Professor Moody's book … I hear you made a good ferret, McCarthy."

The Gryffindors, Draco and Jax roared with laughter and McCarthy turned bright red with rage, but kept his mouth shut. Harry and his friends returned to the castle in high spirits after that lesson.

"That was just priceless," Draco laughed as McCarthy stormed up the steps, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

"After what that dickhead put Hagrid through last year," Andrew started, before putting on an extremely high pitched voice, "sweet revenge!"

"Is that Worms?" Katy asked.

"It is, how did you know that?" Jax asked, amazed.

"My mom's a no-ma…" she stopped herself, "a Muggle-born, and her brother's a huge gamer living with us," she explained. "He's also big on movies too."

Andrew couldn't help but chuckle. They arrived in the entrance hall to find a notice standing next to the foot of the marble staircase and a large crowd of students reading it. Ron stood on his tiptoes to see over the crowd, reading the notice out loud.

 _TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT_

 _The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30_ _th_ _of September. Lessons will end half an hour early -_

"Awesome, that'll be during Snape's class so he can't poison everyone!" Draco cheered. "More chance that there'll be enough working antidotes to go around."

 _Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast._

"Hopefully by then we'll have moved all the Jedi inside," Andrew said thoughtfully. Dumbledore had been trying to convert some disused classrooms into make-shift dormitories as he felt that the winter would be too harsh for camping.

"Well there's only about six tents out there now," Ginny pointed out, looking over her shoulder and out onto the grounds.

"That's still a good twenty people to find beds for," Jax said seeing the realism of the situation. "And the thirtieth is only a week away."

For the next week, nobody talked about anything but the tournament, not a word was said about classes or homework or even home. The castle went through an extra-thorough cleaning, portraits were scrubbed, suits of armour were polished and oiled, and Filch had turned into a dictator of caretakers, behaving so ferociously towards students who didn't wipe their feet that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into tears.

Unfortunately for Filch, one of those girls was Andrew's sister.

"Lizzy, what's wrong?" he asked, crouching down on his haunches to look up at her, wiping her tears gently with his gloved hand.

 **Flashback**

"So, what's new at home?" Andrew asked as he and Elizabeth sat by the lake on the first Saturday after classes started. They had just finished joining the other Jedi for a morning run around the lake, something the Order insisted on every Saturday, a timed five kilometre run to start the day, one lap of the lake was just a little over the mark.

"Well, Brooke's gotten a job at the town hall, so she's never home much," Elizabeth started slowly, catching her breath, pulling on some grass. "And Hayden's just finished secondary school and started college."

"What's he studying?" Andrew asked.

"Journalism," she answered. "You know how he loves to tell a story."

"Not to mention how he loves digging around for the truth, I figured he's either be a journalist or an archaeologist," Andrew joked, making his sister giggle. "What about Mum and Dad?"

"They're the same as always," Elizabeth told him. "Dad's still at the library and Mum's still at the bank."

"And how're you enjoying Hogwarts?" Andrew asked with a smile. She let out a groan as she threw herself back onto the grass.

"I got lost six times in the first day!" she complained to the sky.

"And twice a day, every day since!" Andrew laughed. "Trust me, I went through the same thing."

"The classes are fun though," she said, sitting up.

"Even History of Magic?" Andrew teased. "What was this I heard about snoring?"

She lashed out and punched her brother in the arm, there was a clang even through his shirt and she screamed in pain.

"Jeez, Lizzy, watch your temper!" Andrew shouted, examining her sore knuckles.

"Christ! What the hell!" she shouted back, pulling up his sleeve before he could stop her, she gasped when she saw the metal. "What happened?"

"Rescue mission," Andrew told her, keeping it vague. "I got thrown out of a window, a tree impaled me right here." He pointed to where his bicep would normally be. "By the time I got to a Jedi medic, the branch caused gangrene and my arm had to be amputated before the infection reached my chest."

"Oh my God," she gasped, feeling his arm through his long-sleeve shirt all the way to his shoulder. "Does it hurt?"

"It did, and sometimes I get phantom pains from the lightsaber," Andrew admitted, "but it doesn't hurt any more, I'm more bothered by the thought of how people would react if they knew."

"You mean your friends don't know?" Elizabeth demanded.

"Well look at how you reacted," Andrew snapped as he got swiftly to his feet, "you're horrified and you hardly see me! Harry, the others, they see me all the time, I couldn't take the looks they'd give me, the looks _you'll_ give me from now on!"

Elizabeth got up and rubbed her brother's back, she could feel him shaking a little as he started to break down. "You're still my brother and I love you!" she said firmly.

"I'm a freak of nature!" he cried, punching the tree and breaking a lot of the bark.

"You've been that for as long as I've known you!" she shot back.

He blinked at her, and burst out laughing at her attempt to shake him out of his funk. "Thanks Lizzy."

"You should tell your friends, and if they turn their backs on you, I'll beat them up for you." Elizabeth promised him.

"Alright, I promise I will when I'm ready, and you let me know if anyone gives you any trouble, I'll make 'em eat a right knuckle sandwich." Andrew promised back.

 **End Flashback**

Elizabeth sniffled. "Filch just told me and Eleanor off big time, just because we didn't wipe our feet in the Entrance Hall." she cried, Andrew scowled.

"Remember our promise?" Andrew asked, Elizabeth nodded, her eyes going wide in horror as Andrew got to his feet, she realised what he was about to do.

"No, it's not worth you getting expelled over," she pleaded.

"Mel, look after her, I'm gonna go have a talk with our dear Caretaker!" Andrew then stormed off, but didn't need to go very far as Filch walked in to get some dinner.

Andrew stepped right up to the older man and grabbed the collar of his coat, dragging him to the doors. He bodily lifted him off the floor with his gloved right hand, pinning the Caretaker to the door with at least six inches between the man's feet and the floor.

"You own my sister an apology dirtbag!" the Padawan bellowed up at Filch. " _Nobody_ makes my sister cry and gets away with it!"

Andrew then threw Filch in Elizabeth's direction, with so much force that the man skidded along the floor, he looked up at Andrew with wide eyes as the Jedi stalked towards him. "I'm s-s-sorry, I didn't mean to make 'er cry!" he all but screamed.

Andrew leered angrily over the man. "Do it again," he growled, "and I promise, I will break. Your. FACE! Got me!?" Filch just nodded feverishly. "Good, now, I'm tired of looking at you … disappear!"

Filch scrambled to his feet and forgot all about eating as he ran out of the Great Hall. Andrew turned to go and sit down and found himself staring at Professor McGonagall's naval, the Padawan looked up to see her looking furious.

"Care to explain that, Mr Payne?" she asked in a dangerous tone.

"Just being an overprotective older brother Professor." Andrew replied calmly.

"Well, kindly exercise more control while our visitors are here." She ordered, stalking back to the teachers table.

"Just so long as none of them pick on my sister!" Andrew called after her, sitting down.

Two days later, on the morning of the thirtieth, the Great Hall had had a makeover, massive silken banners had been hung from the walls, each depicting the emblem of one of the Hogwarts houses – red with a golden lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin.

Finally behind the teachers table, was the biggest banner of all, displaying the Hogwarts coat of arms, complete with the school motto in Latin. Harry and his friends noticed Fred and George at the Gryffindor table, away from everyone else, so they decided to go and sit with them.

"Morning my lords," Andrew joked, "what's new in the realms of chaos?"

Fred hastily rolled up a sheet of parchment and stuffed it away in his bag. "Nothing much, just something private."

"Anything we could do to help?" Katy asked.

"Don't think so, it's just a problem we've had since the world cup." George answered.

"Something of yours got destroyed in the riot?" Mel asked.

"Uh, yeah!" Fred said. "We're having trouble getting it replaced is all."

"Maybe you should try asking if your brother can help," Hermione suggested.

"Already tried that, he blew us off." George grumbled.

Andrew and Mel looked unconvinced, but stepped aside when the twins said they had to get to their class.

"You think they're really just working on getting into the tournament and didn't wanna tell us?" Ron asked.

"Maybe," Katy said, "they're definitely hiding something. Do you think they found out who to fool into letting them in?"

"I tried reading up on that," Hermione said. "I couldn't find any reference to who picks out the champions, but I do know that Dumbledore and the Heads of the other two schools will be judges, awarding points after each task."

"'Hogwarts: A History' again?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, not that it's a _complete_ history, I read through the entire book and not _one_ mention on the enslavement of House Elves!" Hermione fumed.

"Can I offer a suggestion, Hermione?" Katy asked.

"Yes?" Hermione snapped.

"If Hogwarts is anything like Durmstrang, there'll be a large kitchen where the House Elves do most of their work during the day," Katy explained, picking her words carefully to avoid inciting another Hermione rant. "If you can find it, you'll be able to talk to them, just as Andrew asked."

"Fred and George told me about the kitchen two days ago!" Hermione said with a little huff, she had been rattling around the Gryffindor common room to get more people to sign up to S.P.E.W (the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare), and she hadn't been making a great deal of headway.

The most 'support' she had gotten so far was people signing up to get her to leave them alone. Fred and George had the other day explained to her that they had been down to the kitchens, met the House Elves there and that they were happy.

Hermione then started shouting that they were brainwashed, which caused Andrew to shout at her again about being open minded, at the time, Katy was down at Hagrid's hut with Ginny, taking notes on the Skrewts.

After breakfast they headed off to their classes, but nobody was really paying that much attention, there was a general feeling of anticipation in the air as everyone kept thinking about the impending arrival of the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Even Potions was more bearable, given that the bell rang before Snape could even poison one student. After it rang, Jax and Draco bid farewell to Harry and the others as they split off to go to their own common rooms.

"Lucky stiffs," Andrew complained, "their common room is a stone's throw away from Snape's class, while ours is all the way on the seventh floor!"

The seven of them led the rest of the Gryffindors from Snape class as they hurried up to the seventh floor to drop off their bags and books, as instructed by the notice, and they decided to grab their cloaks as a precaution. They rushed back down to the Entrance Hall, where the Heads of houses were sorting the students into lines.

McGonagall ordered Ron to straighten his hat and for Parvati to remove an ornamental butterfly from her plait, before sending them out onto the grounds with the first-years in front. Andrew leaned around the line to see that McGonagall had placed Justin and Bones at the very front and placed Justin's hand on her elbow to lead him out of the double doors.

"How's he been doing?" Ginny asked, noticing where Andrew was looking.

"No idea, I've not had enough time on my hands to check up on him." Andrew muttered back as they started to walk.

It was a clear evening, and the early signs of a winter chill were in the air, in the fourth row of Gryffindors, Andrew was standing between Katy and Mel, who stood next to Ron, then Ginny, Harry and Hermione.

Katy was shaking like a leaf already. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I'm from C-c-california, and it's f-f-f-freezing here," she growled through chattering teeth. Without thinking, Andrew whipped off his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders, then he went one step further and pulled out a pokéball.

"Growlithe..." He muttered, she she stopped him.

"I don't want you getting in trouble because of me, or cold either, but thank you." she said, trying to give him back his cloak.

"Keep it, I once spent six weeks in the frozen tundra of Siberia on a survival course, _this_ is balmy in comparison." Andrew chuckled, reaching out to fasten the clasp of his cloak over Katy's.

"Nearly six," Ron said, checking his watch, Andrew checked his own to confirm it and just managed to do so before Katt's head appeared over the watch face.

" _Need something?_ " she asked, shocking a few people around Andrew.

"No, just checking the time." he replied.

" _Oh, it's six oh one._ " she said just before her head vanished.

"Any ideas on how your school's getting here?" Andrew asked Katy, thinking she might have some idea.

"If I were to have a guess, I'd keep an eye on the lake." she answered. "My Dad used to tell me stories about how the lake at Durmstrang was some sort of portal, but I never saw it in action."

Andrew heard a sneeze and looked over to see his sister wiping her nose and give a little shiver, he looked to McGonagall who saw his concerned look and shook her head, nodding back to the Ravenclaws, Andrew turned back and saw Professor Flitwick pass Elizabeth a jar with a bright blue flame inside. The little girl nodded gratefully and held onto the jar to keep warm.

The young Jedi smiled in appreciation and looked back to his Head of house, seeing that she was still looking at him, he pointed to Justin and mouthed 'how is he?'. She just mouthed 'tell you later' and turned to look back over the grounds.

Mel reached over and nudged Andrew. "Our lot are out here too," she whispered, pointing to the far end of the gathering. The Jedi were all turned out in their finest and most formal robes, standing like soldiers in their ranks, Andrew then briefly looked around the grounds and noticed that there were two fighters, manned and ready to take off at a moments notice.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!" Dumbledore called out from the back with the other teachers. As he finished his announcement, there was the hiss of an igniting lightsaber and the two fighters roared to life and took off vertically.

As they flew off, the whole school followed their progress, they flew out over the forest and circled around what appeared to be a winged house. The fighters escorted it into a smooth landing, where the lights from the castle showed it was a ginormous horse drawn carriage. It pulled up in front of the assembled school and the door opened swiftly revealing a boy in pale blue robes, he dropped down from the carriage and fumbled with something in the undercarriage, there was a click and a set of golden steps unfolded themselves.

A few people were briefly distracted as one of the palomino horses let out a snort and tossed its mane. The fact that it was about as large as an elephant made it sound a little louder than it should have.

Those who looked at the horse, turned back to the carriage door to see one of the largest women they had ever seen, she had to be almost nine feet tall with barely a scrap of fat on her person, she was olive-skinned and draped from neck to foot in black satin, her hair was tied back in a knot at the base of her neck and many opals gleamed in the lights from her neck and fingers.

Dumbledore started to applaud and the rest of the school followed his example, the woman before them graced them with a smile, she stepped forward and offered her hand and Dumbledore dipped his head to kiss it. "My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," she responded in a deep voice with an obvious French accent. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"On excellent form, I thank you," Dumbledore told her formally.

Madame Maxime then waved one of her enormous hands behind herself, drawing attention to her pupils, they were shivering in the cold air as their powder blue robes seemed to be made of fine silk and none of them were wearing cloaks.

"( _Professor, if I may, I'd like to help warm our visitors up a little,_ )" Andrew sent to Dumbledore, who turned and nodded.

"Mel, can you call out Charmander for me?" Andrew asked, she nodded and threw her pokéball as she broke ranks, other Jedi caught on and followed suit while Andrew handed his Growlithe to Katy as she was shivering just as much as the Beauxbatons students.

In seconds there was a collection of fire-type pokémon surrounding Madame Maxime and her pupils, Jax chose to send his Ponyta to keep the Beauxbarons exchange student warm in the Ravenclaw group. One of the visiting Beauxbatons students saw the Ponyta and darted out to hug the exchange student, one glance and it was obvious that they were sisters.

"Thank you for the warmth, I would not want my pupils to catch a cold." Maxime said gratefully as Andrew directed the pokémon to stay close to her students. "'As Karkaroff arrived yet?"

"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore replied. "Would you like to wait here and greet him?"

"If these curious creatures can stay close," Maxime answered. My 'orses -"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher," Dumbledore said, motioning behind himself to Hagrid, "will be delighted to take care of them."

Hagrid stepped out and took the reigns of the horses. "They require – er – forceful 'andling," she told Hagrid.

"Won' be any trouble fer me," Hagrid said with a grin as he started to pull on the horses reigns.

"Zey drink only single-malt whiskey!" Maxime called after him.

"Well I've heard of drunk drivers, now I've heard of drunk engines," Andrew commented as he scratched a Flareon under the chin.

" _Good one, Dad,_ " Katt giggled.

They waited in the cold, the Jedi working on calling out more fire-type pokémon and positioning them around the crowd to keep everyone warm.

"Can you hear something?" Ron asked suddenly, just as a gurgling and sucking sound started to reach their ears, almost like water draining out of an immensely large kitchen sink.

"The lake!" Lee Jordan yelled, pointing as bubbles started appearing on the surface, creating waves that washed over the muddy banks of the lake shore.

Suddenly the very centre of the water sank into a whirlpool, then a long black pole rose slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool.

"It's a mast!" Harry said to his friends as he saw the rigging, slowly and spectacularly, an old sail ship rose out of the whirlpool and drifted along the surface of the lake.

"HOLY YODA!" shouted one of the younger Knights among the Jedi. "It's 'The Flying Dutchman'!"

Indeed it did looking like the ghost ship of legend, which took those who died at sea to the afterlife. The rigging looked worn and rotten, like it might fall to pieces at any moment, misty lights shimmered from the portholes, looking like ghostly eyes.

The same two pilots which escorted the Beauxbatons carriage, now took off and escorted the ship from its whirlpool to the shore, as soon as it beached itself in the shallows a plank was lowered onto the shore with a thud.

Shadows disembarked the ghostly galleon and marched up the lawns to the gathered school, at first glance they seemed to be built like Crabbe and Goyle, but as they stepped into the light they were revealed to be wearing bulky fur cloaks.

"I'm guessing it's colder at Durmstrang than it is here," Andrew muttered to Katy, she nodded. "How on earth did you survive?" she giggled a little and one of the Durmstrang students looked sharply in her direction, she saw his face and froze in trepidation.

"Dumbledore!" called out the man leading the Durmstrang students, where the students were wearing shaggy, matted brown furs, this man was wearing furs which matched his hair, sleek and silver. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice, as he stepped into the light he was revealed to be the exact same build as Dumbledore. He was tall and thin with white hair, but his hair and beard were both short, with the tip of his beard ending in a curl.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the school and smiling, revealing his teeth to be rather yellowed, his smile did not reach his eyes which were cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good … Victor, come along, into the warmth … you don't mind, Dumbledore? Victor has a slight head cold ..."

One of Karkaroff's students stepped forward. "Holy hell!" Andrew gasped, having recognised him at once. "I've seen him before … on a Bulgarian broomstick at the World Cup!"

"It's Krum!" Ron whispered.

 **As I said, I might not be posting for a while, it's uncertain for me right now if I'll post again, so I'll see you when and if I see you.**


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